Dawn
by J.A. Carlton
Summary: With the failure of its first frontal assault, the Marauder finds a different way to separate Sam and Dean, to weaken them as they head to Bobby's for a gathering of hunters. Sure to be plenty of Hurt Sam and Hurt Dean. Part of the WarVerse.
1. Chapter 1

Dawn – SN fic – chpt 1

by sifi:

Disclaimer – I don't even own my soul... what makes you think I own the boys?

Love – it's the only thing I have that's worth anything.

--

Excerpted from previous WarVerse fics.

Then...

"Please stop," Dean breathed feeling his heart hammering, heat burning from inside. His left hand spasmed against the wet dank brick where she'd sunk the first nail into him,

"No," she pressed the tip of the nail into his elbow, leaning deep into it, watching it sink into his skin, feeling it press against bone, then begin to crack the outer shell. The first strike had been fast, sharp, hard, and just to make sure she had his full attention. This one was for pleasure.

"No! No don't... please..." he ground his teeth feeling himself light on fire once again until the metallic 'clinking' was drowned out by the screaming.

"Dean?... Oh God..." Sam's throat squeezed shut, his breath stopped and he fought every urge to throw himself backwards, away from this impossibility, _This is NOT my brother... this... no! NO! Oh God..._

--

"That's enough!" Hendrickson barked grasping the child by the upper arm and turning her, _IT!_ he reminded himself, it's attention away from the nurse that was pinned up against the wall and bleeding from the nose.

It's fury hit him square with spike-ish prickles that tore through him like exploding glass, knocking him across the recovery bay, leaving him gasping for breath, "You don't want to leave a trail of bodies..." he choked, ignoring the pleading look from the woman on the wall.

--

_He looks... innocent. Oh man..._ Sam rolled his head, his eyes misting and his mouth pursing with frustration for the lives they led and what it had done to the man he considered more of a father than John had ever been in his book

"C'mon Dean... y'gotta get up now..." he whispered.

--

Deputy Bruce Berkins felt his eyes bulge as the coffee dribbled down his chin, his body and mind on fire, heavy pins and needles racing in slow motion through his nervous system as the driver of that fine Impala broke to his own left, passing the trooper's vehicle with only millimeters to spare before he pulled with screaming tires to the shoulder of the road, both vehicles on the same side, both stopped with a solid fifty feet between them.

Sam saw him move, saw his hand unsnap the holster, grab the gun, raise it and shoot before the sound of the shot even entered his ears. Pain came a split second later as his right shoulder was slapped back with the impact of the .9mm slug.

--

"I'm lookin' up Enki's family tree... we gotta try and figure out just who's who in the zoo," he sighed and cracked open another beer.

"Bobby sent me a butt load of information on the Babylonian and Akkadian pantheons through the centuries... Search for Nergal and tell me what the hell can kill or banish this son of a bitch,"

--

"Yeah I hear the phone ringing hurry up," Tom scowled as Shep deftly turned the lock, then the knob and slid the picks into his pocket.

"Oh shit..." he groaned charging into the room where both of John's boys lay on the floor, neither man conscious.

--

"I'm under the impression that these gentlemen may be in some serious trouble, Dr. Abrams wasn't clear on details except to say what happened at his hospital after they 'disappeared' was very unpleasant for a number of staff members..."

"Oh hell..." Tom sighed looking at his uncle, "Did Bobby tell you anything?"

Shep shook his head, his brow furrowed, "Nuh uh... probably didn't wanna take the chance on us moving again before getting the boys some help."

--

Red-orange crackled and bit against blue-white floes as the woman at his side used the other to try and find the answers it wanted. A silent battle charged the air, the world went still

The body of the child began to redden as the blue-white crawled over its head, seeking to envelop it, and he couldn't be sure but he thought he saw parts of it trying to, somehow separate from the whole.

On the road the thing Laura had been gripping through the pregnant woman, burst into a flesh colored column of roiling smoky substance before disappearing with a screech into the night sky.

--

All eyes turned as the curtain was drawn aside and Dr. Fitzgerald stepped into the cubicle.

"Dean?" Sam muttered still fighting to come fully awake, "How's m'brother?" he asked.

The surgeon slid the cap off his head, drew a deep breath and nodded, "I've done everything I can."

--

Now...

"Wha'd'ya mean?" he looked with wide worried eyes from the doctor to Tom who stood with his hand on his shoulder, then to Shep who kept his eyes carefully on the surgeon, "Doc? What's that mean?" he muttered working hard to sit up straight.

"That means that the next day or so is probably going to be a little touch and go," he realized as Tom reached behind Sam and literally pulled him upright by the sheet, that his careful and long practiced doctor-speak was lost on these overtaxed men.

"Does he have his arm?" Sam asked.

"For now," Dr. Fitzgerald nodded, "He's going to be very fragile for a very long time, I had to excise a lot of bone... if I didn't get all the infectious material out of there we're going to have to go through this all over again, and if it's still in there, the fact is there won't be much left to save anyway," he drew a firm breath and continued despite the look of barely contained tears on the young man's face, spotting a shadow of the sensitive boy he must've been, "But... he's young and he's strong... and he did have some rudimentary care already... so that could be the most important factor in the end."

"Can I see him?" Sam asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"He's not awake yet. Dr. Benson and I don't like to break hospital policy but... apparently he's also of the mind that it would be best to put you boys in the same room... and if we run the risk of any kind of trouble following you two, no offense but I'd rather keep it contained rather than risk the whole patient population..." he looked pointedly from Shep to Tom, both of whom nodded their understanding, then looked at Sam, "As soon as we have a room ready you'll be able to see your brother," he assured then turned on his heel leaving the three men more anxious than before.

"Oh God..." Sam breathed rubbing his face with his hands, pinching the tears out of the corners of his eyes, _"...Fragile..." he'll hate that! But he's still got his arm, no thanks to me, I never should've waited... I shoulda hunted him down as soon as I knew he was missing... son of a BITCH!_ he wanted to scream.

"Hey, he's gonna be fine Sam. You know your brother's got the Luck o' The Irish right? You'll see, the doc did the job right, Dean'll be fine," Tom assured him gently.

_There's a freakin' demon army out there still trying to get us out of the picture, STILL trying to recruit me, STILL trying to take my brother away, and an Exiled Babylonian God with his army doing... what ARE they doing? What does it want? Why is it here with Yellow Eyes gone... does it KNOW he's dead? Dean's gonna want information, he's gonna downplay his... Okay, we need a plan. I'm sorry Dean but it's my turn to take care of YOU. _

He looked at Tom in the chair on his left, and Shep just a little closer to the foot of the cart, both of them watching him intensely.

"We need a plan. We have to figure out what we _can_ tell Dean and what he can't hear yet... Tom where's Laura?" he asked with furrowed brow and tightly bowed mouth.

Tom's cornflower blue eyes flicked to his uncle's green-gold ones before returning to Sam's.

"Tom?" Sam asked feeling his belly flop over, "Oh God what happened... tell me she's not dead..."

"No... well, I don't think so..." Tom shook his head, "We were arguing about getting her to a hospital... that's one pig headed woman I'll tell you..." he grunted.

"Tell me about it," Sam smirked, "what happened?"

"She jumped out of the car."

"And you _let_ her go?" Sam frowned, "She was torn up Tom! What the hell were you thinking? Oh man, Dean's gonna freak,"

"She said she thought Nergal might have been weakened..."

"Don't use its name... you'll attract its attention," Shep warned softly, then explained when both men turned questioning eyes to him, "...harmonics, that's what gives names power, it's from another plane of existence, it's sensitive to the vibration of its name... just trust me," he rolled his head on his shoulders tiredly.

"So she went after it..." Sam shook his head and felt a small hiccough of a sob in the deep of his throat, "After everything we talked about she's still trying to get herself killed," he chewed his lower lip, "Son of a BITCH!"

"Sam," Shep asked softly, "Who IS this woman, and what does she have to do with any of what's going on, I mean _really_?"

"And I'm pretty interested in just how a human being managed to draw a genuine cone of power..." Tom added.

"Without winding up dead for starters," Shep interrupted then added, "And IF she was able to do it because of her connection to all y'all's patron deities... just how human does that really make her anymore... and why are we hiding whatever the truth might be from Dean? I mean he's got feelings for her, even these tired old eyes can see that, if she's not human he needs to know it..." Shep added reaching into the bag for his notebook.

Sam leaned his head back, "None of us are the same anymore Shep, I'm just... I'm afraid though," he sighed, "Her life was... kinda normal before we came into it, kinda, but..." he huffed a chuckle, "not really. She lost her brother 'cause of us coming into her life, she killed him to save US. WE, Dean and I, it's cause of us that she's in servitude to Cernunnos, it's cause of _us_ and _our_ hunt against Yellow Eyes that Morgan got co-opted, that she was forced to slit her own _brothers_' throat," he sniffed, grimacing against the pain he could imagine all too easily. "No one should have to do something like that," it was a pain, that as far as he knew, she'd never let either him or Dean see.

"When she gets all Kamikaze... it's just my guts but... I think she's still trying to pay for it," he sniffed again and nodded with a sigh.

Tom frowned feeling his eyes mist up partially in response to Sam's, and partly for his own sense of empathy. Between the two of them Shep was the balls-out skeptic, but he didn't have Tom's instincts to rely on, and his instincts liked the woman. "If it's any comfort, it didn't look like she was going to try and confront it Sam, but I do think she was going to follow it, maybe find out where it's holing up, how it's getting its energy... it felt like recon..." he twisted a quick half smile at the young hunter who seemed to relax and breathe a little easier.

"Well that's a plus, at least we won't have to tell him she full on disappeared again... God she pisses me off sometimes..." he moaned slumping back into the mattress, "...thoughtless, reckless... but she loves us... and she gives him what he needs," a faint smile tilted the corners of his mouth as he recalled a moment from a couple years ago, standing outside their motel room shortly after her arrival.

He hadn't known what to do to help his big brother out of the dark place he'd seemed to be falling into, so Sam had called the one person he thought Dean might be able to talk to, the one person he felt might never judge him. When he'd seen his brother, through a crack in the curtain, wrap his arms around her waist as she sat on the bed, then lay his head in her lap and let some of the sobs of his fermented pain finally break free, he'd known he did the right thing, called the right person. He'd stood there for another moment watching, maybe with a hint of envy but mostly with gratitude, while she silently stroked his hair and held him. Certain that Dean was in the right hands, Sam had stepped from the window, leaving his big brother to come to terms with an inner demon Sam hadn't even known existed.

"...so since the whole cult thing and the dryad thing after it, she's been a lot more... I dunno, protective of us... but..." he shrugged.

"So she's kind of a guardian?" Shep asked, "Bang up job she's doin'."

"No, yeah, but...sorta," Sam half nodded, "But's more'n that Shep, she's a friend, an ally b'fore anything..." he half smiled and wobbled his sleepy head back and forth a little, his mop-ish hair waving over his half-mast eyes, "No... b'fore ennything... she loves m'brother, makes'm happy... tha's th'mos' m'portan' 'ing..." a gigantic yawn that hadn't changed since Sam was two, sparked a huge grin across Tom's face as the young man returned for the time being, to the abyss of sleep.

"Alright old man... how're we gonna keep big brother preoccupied, without wanting to put himself in harms' way just to prove he's still fightin' fit?" Tom asked his uncle.

"Ain't gonna be easy that's for sure," Shep muttered tossing his notebook into Tom's lap, "Fortunately... we got some scary stuff to go through with these boys first."

Tom flipped through the pages of scrawl, certain words catching his attention due to excessive over-writing or underlining, his eyes slid questioningly to meet the older hunters', "You gotta be shittin' me..."

"I wish," Shep sighed taking the notebook back and flipping to a clean page so he and Tom could get the facts organized.

--

_It knew I was weak... how did it know? It didn't know... It KNEW... No! I am UNKNOWN to this world... I AM ENIGMA..._ A tiny voice whispered, _'Maybe not so much...' _before it was silenced.

_I NEED his Chosen! What that one human can offer, and the Champion, but first a message of my return, I will feast on the emissary and leave it's carcass as a warning to all others who may come. Now to find her. _

--

"Y'gotta lemme go. Please..." _I need to find it while it's WEAK,_ she pushed up against the arm across her chest then fell back breathless, her eyes barely able to stay open, "Please," _there's something different about it in this world!_ "you don't understand," she shook her head.

"Miss please we need you to lay still now okay? You've been hurt..." the paramedic tried to soothe.

Laura shook her head, "...'s'weak... I can almost feel it," she frowned, "You have a phone?"

"Do you have someone you'd like us to contact?" the dark haired woman asked, her brown eyes glowing with compassion.

"Dean... I have to, aw hell," she breathed and rolled to the side, pushing hard against the woman's arm, "Let me up."

"Miss I really don't think..." but Laura's undamaged right hand closed on the woman's throat, not hard, but enough to startle, enough to get her point across. Seconds later an arm wrapped around her chest from behind while the second grasped her hand and removed it from his partner's throat.

Darkness threatened, fuzzing the edges of her vision as she leaned backward into the restraining arm and allowed herself to be maneuvered and settled onto the gurney where her heart pounded and breath stuttered. Her head swam and tears slid from her eyes, "I'm sorry," she breathed dropping a hand on either of their forearms drawing in what she could that would give her the strength to follow the marauder's void.

--

"Nungh..." Dean tossed his head to the side, his mouth bowed into a deep frown and his brows creased. His right arm jerked into the rail and a sigh moved into the room. Sam looked up from the enormous tome in his lap and Shep's notes balanced on the arm of the chair.

In the last two and a half hours he'd been poring over the material, keeping a watchful eye on his big brother, Dean's eyes had come open several times, the first time bringing with their fevered illumination a sparkly heavy memory of the first time he'd ever seen his big brother delirious.

The second time they came open, his frantic gaze and grasping hand had been heralded by a screaming tenor plea to 'stop!', before the youngest of John's sons caved to his need to, at least for once, in his mind, _try _to give something back to his brother.

_Maybe it worked, maybe he got some nearly dreamless sleep... I hope I didn't hurt him. Man I'm tired...Maybe he's coming all the way out of it... C'mon Dean, let's get you all the way back now..._ his lips pursed tightly and a shiver trembled him in the chair. He wrapped the blanket tightly around his shoulders and dropped his head into his hand, warming the cold clammy palm with the heat from his own still raging fever. _Hope Tom 'n Shep get some rest too_ he thought loosely glad that they'd finally relented and checked themselves into a nearby motel once they had the hospital room salted and blessed.

"...'ey... you 'kay?"

"Yeah, you?" Sam asked wishing he could re-absorb the heat that seemed to be pouring out of his face, back in through his hands. His teeth gave a quick chatter as he slid down just a couple inches in the chair.

"Mmm... 's ever'body?" Dean mumbled squinting at his little brother, "You're sick Sam... should go to bed."

"The guys finally checked into a motel, and Laura's tracking the marauder, trying to find out where it's holed up."

"Mmm," Dean nodded faintly and flapped his hand toward the books in Sam's lap, "Pr'fess'r Peabody," he chuckled and coughed then winced, "research can wait Sam, get some rest..."

As exhausted as he was Sam realized Dean was keeping his head turned toward the right, as if he was afraid of what he might see if he looked to the left.

"You still have your arm Dean," he flicked a quick half smile at his big brother, watching his eyes finally slide to the left so he could take in the fiberglass cast that ran from his hand, all the way up his forearm and over his elbow, finally ending half way up his humerus.

"Holy crap... that's a big friggin' cast..." he smirked and wiggled his swollen fingers in part to assure himself that they were really there.

"Yeah," his little brother answered just a little too sharply.

"S'matter Sam?" he asked breathing a partial sigh of relief.

The young hunter shook his head and made big business of closing up the book then flipping through the pages of Shep's notebook before tucking it all under his own good arm and shuffling to his bed, nearest the window.

"Sam?" Dean asked, concern over his brother's peculiar behavior burning a temporary hole in the haze that kept calling him back.

_How do I tell you it might not be over? How do I tell you that you might STILL wind up losing... _he felt the tears try to come again and forced them down. They weren't kids anymore, they both knew the dangers of the job, and they both knew that anything could happen at any time. _It's still not right... if I'd only acted sooner..._

"Tired Dean..." he muttered setting the books down and sitting on the edge of the bed, meeting his big brothers' eyes, "We have a lot to go over in the morning, till then try and get some sleep okay?"

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn – chpt 2

by: sifi

--

_Forgive me,_ she shook her head after a backward glance at the two inert paramedics, and the stunned frozen Fran and Deputy Berkins who watched her shuffle off, dressed now in the female paramedic's jacket, into the trees, guided by something they could never fathom. _I hope I didn't do 'em any long term damage,_ she sighed turning in a slow circle, feeling for either nothingness or the crackling heat of the abominations' hatred.

Slowly she moved forward, _I will NOT engage it, I only need to see how it's operating here compared to in the Sidhe world, will we be able to kill it here? How do we kill a God? Shhhh don't think just observe. Man I'm beat,_ she reached almost unconsciously to the side placing her hand on the trunk of a tree, drawing a bit of its life energy into herself, _Sorry..._ she patted the ancient creature, _but thank you, _then moved forward again.

Time lost meaning and continuity as she followed the marauder's lack-of-trail, faint tendrils of gray stretched over the horizon behind her announcing the birth of a new day even as she wondered just how many more dawns this world would see before she failed here too. _At least this is a ship I can go down with... I'm sorry guys..._ she breathed deep and turned her face to the East, hoping to feel a shaft of sunshine touch her, to help banish these dark thoughts, _It's not over yet, where there's life, there's hope, '...every day's, a gift, whistle while, you work, so hard, all day,' thanks Buffy. Alright now, let's go see how this world is affecting it. I swear something was different..._

--

Tom snapped awake as Shep closed the computer and dropped a hand onto his back, "C'mon youngun, you're not gonna do either of those boys any good by runnin' yourself down."

The younger hunter nodded and stood before his uncle, his eyes were deeply bloodshot and his expression said it all.

Shep nodded turning Tom toward the bed, "I know boy, I know. If any of it's true, it's just too big for the likes of us," he sat his nephew down.

"Begs the question of destiny though Shep," his usually bright blue eyes darkened with exhaustion as he looked into green-gold, seeking comfort in the elder man's eyes, "There wouldn't be patrons, there wouldn't have been... it wouldn't BE Sammy or Dean if there wasn't hope... if it was immutable right? If it was futile, it would've been someone else, anyone else, or even No one? Right? Anyone _but_ them if it _couldn't _be stopped, right?" he asked stretching out onto his side, slowly rolling onto his stomach, clutching the pillow under his head even as Shep slid the glass off and pulled the comforter over him.

"I hope you're right Tom," he sighed shambling across the room to check the deadbolt, "And I hope to hell Bobby can find something, something more than myth that's gonna... Why though? After all this time, what's it want?" he wondered wrapping himself into the blankets of his own bed and spiraling into sleep.

--

"Mmm?" Sam tossed his head to the side, his mouth bowed faintly down as memory and something more moved inside the sleeping shadows of his mind.

"_They are not ready, it's too soon."_

"_You cannot stop what's coming, to stand in their way is to do them a disservice." _

"_Their humanity... what makes them everything they are..." a voice whose timbre he knew seemed to sigh. _

"_Will only be lost for _certain _if they are not properly prepared, IF they fail. Anything else is no more than a transition, a natural growth process my old friend. You of ALL Gods know this," a rich voice he remembered hearing once before seemed to smile. _

_--_

'_...You swear to who?' he heard it ask as golden light erupted from a breech between worlds and for a moment he thought he could almost make out features, 'Go now, before the window is lost.'_

_Sam felt his blood run cold as he stumbled backward through the barrier that no longer seemed to exist. His eyes fell through the open back door, a giant of light to his right, pinning Jeremy to the corner against the cabinets. On the giant's left the he-bitch cult leader was pinned to the wall by her throat. Their skin began to bubble and smoke but all Sam could see was something leaning over one of two makeshift altars out in the yard, then Dean sat up on the one on the left. _

_Sam _felt_ his brother see him, he felt the recognition and warmth of his heart as he moved from the table and leaped onto the imposter with flailing fists. _

"_Dean! Stop!" he said softly. _

_His hands were warm as they closed on his big brothers', his eyes finding the man he loved so well behind the hurt, as he crouched beside him, "Dean..." he said._

"_Why?! Do you have any idea?... what... Sam..." he questioned looking from the imposter to his little brother. _

"_I know... but you have to stop Dean, you can't do this..." Sam shook his head his eyes pleading. _

"_Why the hell NOT!" he demanded furiously. _

_Sam swallowed and his lips twitched faintly, "Because once will be enough if it comes down to it..." Sam took control of the semi-conscious invader and nodded toward the other altar, "Get Laura..." _

_Dean nodded and rose, leaving the creature to whatever justice lay in his brother's hands._

"_It's too late... it's done and you can't stop it! You can't undo it!" the thing that had stolen his countenance hissed as Sam grasped it tightly. _

_Just as it had on that long ago night when the Igigi were unleashed on the world Sam felt his heart skip in his chest while some nearly sleeping voice inside muttered, 'It started with them, so start with them, parallel lines WILL intersect.' _

"_What?" he started to ask as his body moved with a squeeze and twist, and the unmistakable sound of bones breaking rang out against the sudden stillness that filled the back yard._

"Nuhguh..." he bolted upright in his bed breathing hard and grasped the reference book and Shep's notebook, sliding the load onto his lap then turned on the light.

"It's brother gave his followers," he muttered flipping the tome open to the index, "Ninurta, c'mon be in here..."

"Sam?" Dean groaned angling his head toward his little brother, his eyes skimming the puffy fingers that seemed to wiggle and wave at him of their own accord, perhaps happy to still be part of the whole. "Wha'is it?" he pushed himself up then found the control on the side rail and raised the back of the bed.

"Ninurta," Sam said softly and smiled poking a line on the page before tossing Shep's notebook across the three feet that separated them, into Dean's lap, "Look it up, it should be easy enough to find."

Dean sniffed, shook his head and rubbed his eyes with his good hand while the fingers of his left walked over the pages, "Spelled like it sounds?" he asked yawning, "Nevermind found it... what are we looking for?"

"What'd he write?" Sam asked turning to the first of several pages listed in the index.

"Mmm Ninurta son of Nisaba and Enlil, equals Ner..."

"DON'T... say the name," Sam barked softly, "Shep says it'll hear it."

"Mmkay, equals the marauder's brother, then above that by Enlil... do we have to worry about any of these other funky ass names?" he asked.

"I don't think so, not unless they're on this plane," Sam shook his head

"Great, so above Enlil there's an arrow pointing from him, to Enki okay 'cause she said they're brothers..." he frowned trying to trace the layers of lineage Shep had tried to draw, "But I'm not sure where to pick this line up, whether it's here?" he tapped a page then flipped to another and tapped a lower spot, then flipped forward a couple more pages and finally back again, "or here, the names could go either way, they're still similar enough to the main ..." his heart skipped a beat, the monitor blipped, "Son of a bitch..."

"What?" Sam asked.

Curling his lower lip between his teeth he flipped forward once again by several pages, then back more slowly, "Now how the hell does this come in?" he wondered aloud as his brows furrowed and his gaze turned to meet Sam's.

"What Dean?" he asked.

Dean folded the notebook and held it up in his good hand, his finger pointing right at the heavily lined name, "Your friend and mine, Azazel."

--

Dirt filled the crevasses of its hosts' fingernails as it swept aside wet leathery fallen leaves and woody debris until only bare moist earth lay open. Heat of fury began to cool as it lay back on the ground, a child's body in death-like repose for a brief moment before cohesion was forsaken. The particles of flesh colored motes soaked into the ground like rainwater as it reminded itself of its mission and purpose. There was something about this realm that carried distraction with every breath, as if it was a living thing with a will of its own.

_First to find the Chosen and the Champion, they cannot hide from me indefinitely. It is THEY who will give me what I need. I can taste it on them, the power, the history, the flavor of the first ones. To have touched that power and denied it..._ it shuddered with the weight of the implication, uncertain whether to blame ignorance or to tremble in awe of the inner power it sensed they each must possess.

Its awareness reached forward through the body of the world, creeping slowly outward molecule by molecule, wholly aware and absorbing all the information it could. It knew the emissary was nearby feeding on the life around them both, but unlike in the Sidhe realm where its existence was an-harmonic and easily spotted; here it was almost inseparable from all the other energies of this realm. Only the movement and purposeful direction of the energy gave even the subtlest hint of where it might be.

_Make no mistake emissary, I AM going to kill you. I will devour you body and soul and when naught remains and you are no more than dust in the heat of my passing, it is whatever you possessed that will help to tear apart this world that my forbearers made. _

_But first, the betrayer and his followers, I taste him within the Chosen one. Is that where you are? If I must claw through every human body on this world to find him, I will do so. For his betrayal, Azazel WILL pay, and as the champion and the emissary rise to his defense, they too shall die. Now, to find them._

--

The raven flitted ahead by another dozen or so yards and chirped gently in the grayish light. Laura glanced up meeting the bird's coffee colored eyes and shook her head sinking to her knees breathlessly, her hand reaching out, wanting to draw from the life around her but she stayed the impulse. _I'm not a killer,_ a faint smile tilted her lips and a huff of irony puffed gently in the air, _Well okay, I'm a killer, but I'm not a thief, I've taken too much this night already. Just really need to rest a bit. _She tucked her hands under her arms and slid down onto her rear, leaning against the tree, using it for support and nothing else.

The raven squawked and wings fluttered.

"Nuh uh," she shook her head, closing her eyes and breathed deep.

Talons gripped her shoulder through the paramedic's jacket she wore and a hard insistent beak pecked at her head.

"Shhh, quit it..." she flapped her arm at the bird.

She shook her head when it squawked once more, loudly right into her ear. She cracked her eye open and looked squarely at the creature.

"I'm tired, I need rest..." she sighed while the creature chirped again, "I can't move, I got nuthin' left."

A sharp, hot, powerful pinch gripped her ear as the avian beat its wings around her head.

"OWWW Son of a bitch!" she howled lunging for the bird who let go and hopped on the ground, its caw's stuttering in the early morning light, "You're laughing at me! You bitch!" she half snarled and half chuckled rising to her feet to continue following the insistent creature.

"Y'know I'm gonna have Cernunnos talk to Cerridwen about you guys... you're getting pretty ballsy y'know... course Sam told me about how y'all were trying to protect Dean, so I guess a little lee-way's alright..." she stumbled through the undergrowth toward the sound of early morning traffic and emerged on the side of the road looking at a run down four room motel. Her eyes fell on her very own four door sedan parked before room number 2, and she shook her head with a wry smile as the raven perched on the roof of the car.

"Sure... make me look like a dork..." she grinned taking advantage of a momentary lapse in traffic to hobble across the road. At the car she stopped and drew the back of her hand down the raven's chest, "Thanks," she sighed before the bird took wing to start its day.

--

A dull knock on the door brought Shep shambling to the peep hole, and a moment later had him guiding the woman to the bed that still held his warmth.

"How are they?" she managed to mumble.

"Good. Youngun's still got his arm last we knew... we blessed and salted the room b'fore we left 'em t'get some sleep. What'd you find out?" he asked.

"It wants Sam, it wants BOTH of them... their power, but it couldn't find them, and it needs to gather its own strength again... I felt it start to sleep..." she sighed leaning to the side, succumbing to the comfort and warmth Shep had left behind.

"They're JUST BOYS... _what_ the hell kind of power are they s'posed t'have!? and can you take us where it's sleepin'?" the elder hunter asked.

Her head swung loosely until she was looking into his eyes, he wasn't sure whether it was with disbelief, or something else. "It's in the earth, even if we found it..." she shook her head against the pillow, "rest. We don't have what it takes to kill it yet," she yawned and slid into darkness.

"Well hell..." Shep sighed then drew the covers over the woman, re-bolted the door, and with a quick glance at the clock that told him they'd only been asleep for about an hour, climbed into bed behind his nephew knowing there would be better answers when they were all a little more fresh.

--

"...stop... please..." Dean's half plea stuck in his throat, the sound of it bringing mist to Sam's eyes. For the last half hour his big brother had been at the mercy of his memories and though Sam had tried to 'will' him more dreamless restful sleep, he either didn't have the strength or the knowledge to penetrate the horror of the older man's experience.

His head rolled from side to side as his mouth bowed down and his brows came together, water squeezed from the corner of his eyes as a hauntingly child-like whimper crept out along with a simple tortured, "...please..."

"S'okay, you're okay," Sam sniffed and rested his hand on his big brothers shoulder.

Dean's eyes popped open latching onto Sam's while he gulped a hungry lungful of air then scanned the room. A twitch of his breathing betrayed him.

"Guh..." he gasped then righted the mask Sam had somehow convinced himself he'd discarded.

"Y'alright?" he asked actually managing to sound nonchalant while quickly smoothing his brow so Dean couldn't see the evidence of his guilt and sorrow.

Visibly relieved, and more than a little confused the elder hunter cleared his throat and sat up as Sam returned to the chair where he'd been trying to figure out what it was that was driving the marauder.

"Yeah, just uh... you know...lollipops and candy canes..."

"You wanna talk about it?" Sam asked barely moving his eyes from the pages of the book.

Dean shook his head and looked under the blankets then around at the base of the bed. "S'probably just gonna take a while before I can shake it out of my system," he muttered lowering the rail and swinging his feet to the floor. To his surprise a wave of dizziness couldn't decide if it was going to make him pass out or throw up.

"Understandable," Sam nodded, _It's gonna take you twice as long big brother if you just keep trying to swallow it down! Please, I know it's probably too fresh for you to talk about,_ he thought about Dean's rapid fire explanation to Dr. Blumenthal, of what he'd been put through, then the panic stricken expression that had come over his face when the jonnie came down exposing the probably close to a hundred or more snags and tears in his body, he shook his head, _but you're going to have to eventually. I hope by now you know you can talk to ME. _"Just so you know..." he offered.

"I know," Dean nodded with a faint smile and pushed himself to his feet, leaning on the IV pole as he moved steadily into the bathroom.

When he was done, with the door shielding him from his little brother's far too observant gaze, he sat on the toilet, his good right arm folded against the cool edge of the porcelain sink, his forehead pressed to his warmth while his breath moved shakily in and out. His body flinched with the memory of every blow that fell, every touch of those taloned hands on him and how that _thing _violated his sovereignty leaving him feeling helpless, cold and desolate in his fear.

--

tbc.

Please R&R

Thanks


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn – 3

by: sifi

--

"Dean..." she whispered harshly and snapped awake, her skin crawling in time with something more, something sinister.

Her eyes fell to the two hunters in the bed across from her as she sat up, "Shep! Tom! C'mon we gotta go!" she urged pushing to her feet and moving to the jacket Tom had worn the night before.

She crouched digging into the pockets and found her car keys, "Guys!" she barked as they started to rouse, Tom blinking sleep from his eyes and Shep scowling though his most fearsome couldn't compare to Dean's on a bad morning.

"Meet us at the hospital," she mumbled stepping carefully out of the room and into the early morning sunshine.

Some time within the forty five minutes or so since she'd fallen asleep in Shep's bed something had grown to feel steadily more wrong. As she followed the energy she knew all too well toward the hospital and her men, she shook her head wondering how she'd let herself fall asleep when the Marauder was recharging itself. _NOW is when we should be acting to find out how to send it back or kill it... God what'm I doing?_

Smiling faintly as she strode confidently past the reception desk where a security guard was explaining to a harried looking business woman that visiting hours didn't start for another forty five minutes, she wondered if it was the paramedic's jacket that got her in, or her demeanor.

_Not that it matters..._ she stepped into the elevator, her hand open, hovering over the buttons as the door closed, until she felt compelled to press 5.

Stepping from the elevator the draw came from her left, it pulled on something deep like the sound of a baby's cry in the middle of the night. Her heart pounded and sweat broke beneath her clothes. Blood oozed from the slash across her torso, blisters from the burns broke and water slid erotically down her flesh. Dean was in pain, stabbing discomfort shortened her breath, he was alone inside. The world outside pressed on her chest, Sam hurt inside, guilt squeezed tight around them both. Rods of fire shot up her leg from her damaged ankle and twisted her back; nurses, CNA's, and residents moved aside as she limped toward the room at the end of the hall.

Through the open door she could see Sam's long legs stretched out, he was sitting in the chair, and though she couldn't yet see Dean his pain called to her clanging against her nerves with the clarity of a harbor buoy's bell.

A grateful smile drew the corners of her mouth just a little further with every step she took. The door of the bathroom opened and Dean emerged slowly, pushing the IV pole in front of himself, his left arm was in a cast covering half his hand and ending half way up his upper arm. A sigh of relief slid from her slightly parted lips, his pain was still there, fear gnawing on his innards like the rats he once thought had gotten inside, but he had a grip on it. He wasn't letting it run away with him.

His gaze turned to the left, drawn by her movement down the hall.

To warm her heart, the worrisome half-frown that was tugging at the corners of his mouth released. Those corners moved upward spreading light through his face.

"Hey," his smile greeted as Sam leaned forward, peering around his big brother who'd suddenly started moving toward the door.

Laura stepped up her limping pace, "Stay there sweetie..." she waved her hand and smiled when he stepped backward from the doorframe.

To her surprise Sam rose behind Dean, a gentle smile on his face, his hand loosely on his brother's shoulder, whether to hold him back or for some other reason she couldn't figure.

Crossing the threshold opened a floodgate in the woman as she lurched forward and wrapped one arm around Dean and the other around Sam. Her lips finding purchase on the younger brother's cheek before seeking the elder hunters, where they came to rest and lingered for long warm moments that could never be lifetimes enough.

"I've missed you so much..." she choked letting tears wet her lips before she pressed them to his.

John's eldest boy leaned forward, tasting her salt as the corners of his mouth turned up with the barest hint of happiness, "Me too," he sighed into her.

--

Deep in the forest, earth trembled.

It turned in pain, its particles drawing together, burning in the re-building of its host body.

Insects called, smoke rose, small mammals squealed and cried, and young plants and grasses turned brown to die.

Slender fingers burrowed upward from the ground wiping away granules of soil that had once been rich and moist with life. Those granules, with the touch of those fingers burst apart, a high sweet scent of decay that puffed gently on the air.

Its dreams were filled with visions of tarnished gold flavored with desperation though just whose, it could not tell. It thought about the champion, the taste of his fear just before its grip on the Chosen one slipped, then the human had dared to feel relief!

_I must bring them each under my power, but they're stronger together than I believed. I must make them helpless, I must separate them from their guardians and each other when they are each isolated then they'll forfeit what I need. But how?_

Slowly the particles of the ancient creature separated once more, content to reside for a time within the mantle of the earth, plotting carefully toward its sinister ends.

--

"Thanks Bobby, we'll be there as soon as we can... yeah, every hunter you know that we can trust...let 'em know to be there in 5 days time," Sam nodded then frowned, "Leave that between her and Ellen. For the record, Dean and I both agree, you should ask her," he listened some more, "She dealt with it. None of it was easy, it scared the crap out of her but she held her own, she has a right to be part of it if she wants to," he nodded meeting eyes with Dean who also nodded firmly affixed to the idea of Ellen's daughter being summoned to Bobby's, "If she's been hunting on her own for the last year and a half, absolutely...Alright, we'll see you in a couple days," he smiled at his older brother, "We will... thanks."

Dean grinned and leaned back into Laura who sat in the bed behind him, her fingers stroking absently through his hair, her chin resting on his shoulder, "Alright then, I'll head out this afternoon to Bobby's and make sure the wards are still in place, and see if I can get in touch with Mustard seed."

"Mustard seed?" Sam asked smiling wryly, "There's really a sidhe named Mustard seed?"

"I can't pronounce half their names properly," she mused, "He was just really feisty and wanted to stay behind with me when their world was collapsing...anyway, I'll see if they're willing to keep an eye out for any mischief even anything they sense coming from any of the other hunters... how many did Bobby say there might be?" she asked.

"Well we've got Shep and Tom with us so I'm guessing Ellen, Jo, Tamara, maybe three or four more... he's sure as hell not gonna call Greely, Greedy... whatever his name is... I don't know..." Sam shrugged.

Dean leaned his head back, his eyes closed while he smiled loosely and rubbed his temple against her neck, "We're not much of an army... but at least we can put the word out about what's really going on..." he nudged Laura, "Do you really think it's a good idea to bring a demon into the mix? I mean what if the Igigi can't get through the wards and we just invite them in? What if we can't get rid of them? The marauder needed Hendrickson to break the salt line... maybe that's something that can keep _them_ out too..."

Sam looked up from Shep's notebook, his lips stretched in a knowing smile that seemed to radiate warmth, _God, he's almost... at peace... we're about to... _he shook his head, _And he looks like he could be lounging on a beach, that is so...weird..._

"Hey Laura, did you get yourself fixed up or do you still need some tending?" Sam asked.

"Oh hell..." Dean tried to sit up but she wouldn't have it, and wrapped her arm over his chest pulling him back into her.

"Don't... you feel good against me," she smiled into his ear, "I'll get tidied up when Shep and Tom get here," she took a deep breath, her lips drawing wind across the elder hunter's ear so that he shivered and chuckled warmly, wrapped in goose bumps.

"I have someone else I think should come. He's not a hunter..." she started.

"He?" Dean questioned.

"Yeah he. He's not a hunter, but he _is_ psychic, he was born one," she stopped wondering if it was such a good idea after all.

"What?" Sam asked noting her frown, his tone causing Dean to tilt his head back to examine her expression.

"Nah, nevermind... it's probably a bad idea on second thought," she shook her head with a small smile.

"So, who's this _he_?" Dean asked turning to face her more fully now.

"He's someone I look after once in a while. His fiancée disappeared from their home a few weeks ago,"

"He has a fiancée, good," Dean muttered then nodded again, "That's good."

"Goof," Laura grinned pressing her lips to his temple while Sam tried to hold back a smile of his own, "...he has visions he thinks are guiding him to her," she explained.

"Are they?"

"Are they?" the brothers asked together.

"Yeah I think so," she nodded.

"But?" Dean asked recognizing the look of her holding something back.

She sighed, "Asmodeus has 72 legions of demons that he commands, this isn't the ONLY front this war is going to have if we can't stop it."

Dean shuddered in her arms as the implication sank in. Across the room Shep's notebook dropped to the floor and slid a few feet as Sam leaned forward, his jaw open in disbelief.

"Wha...well...how...you're not..." Dean stammered trying to pull from her arms, trying to turn around and face her, to read in her eyes just what exactly she might know that they didn't.

Her warm hands stroked his face, her lips grasped his and her arms drew him close once more, "Shhh, just let me hold you," she rubbed her cheek against his silky short shorn hair, "On a positive note, so far as yet it's only been the two gates we know of that have been opened, these are the advance forces, if we can turn them back we stand a chance of making sure this war never goes any further," she explained.

"Hey Laura?" Sam asked.

"Yeah?"

"When did The King of Hell come into the mix?" he asked quietly, his eyes focused on Dean's.

"Ex...excuse me the what?" Dean asked looking between them.

Laura smoothed his hair then spiked it up again, "He's not."

"You never paid attention! Never! All that time Jim spent with us and all you could do was read Batman comics..." Sam shook his head in disbelief.

"What's wrong with Batman?"

"Guys..."

"He's a Comic Book Character Dean!"

"Guys!"

Dean leaned forward, "He's a freakin superhero who just happens to be a mortal man kinda like us! Kinda like Dad taught us to be!"

Laura licked her fingers, wedged them under her tongue and took a deep breath.

"Dad? Dean, even DAD wanted us as prepared as possible, why do you think he sent us to Jim half of our summers?"

Shaking her head she blew a shard of an ear piercing whistle that drew looks from all the staff members down the hall, and managed to silence John's children.

Both of them cocked their heads expectantly, it wasn't the first time she'd broken up an impending tension argument between them.

"Batman rocks," she said and felt Dean snuggle smugly against her, "And your dad KNEW that knowledge is POWER," she said into his ear and watched Sam nod smugly from his chair across the room.

"Now, just so we're clear, opening ANY gate runs the risk of a major player coming through and frakking everything aaaaalllll the way up okay? I'm just saying... for the record, there are seventy two legions of demons at hellside's beck and call. The couple hundred ancients that yellow eyes had following him, ready to follow Sam when Wyoming opened, it's a strike team in comparison, nothing more in the scheme of things," she sighed.

Dean watched his little brother nod his head in agreement from across the room then leaned back with a heavy sigh, "We're so screwed..."

"No sweetie, those legions have been on call for millennia. With luck, and some fast decisive action, we might be able to stop this ripple before any of the top dogs even know what happened," she explained.

"What about the marauder?" Sam asked.

Her chest shook beneath Dean's back, warm air puffed against his neck and she sniffed, "Even if we lose, I don't think hell is gonna just hand over the world IT wants."

"So if _we_, if humanity fails... it's gonna be up to hell's own top dogs... or bottom dogs... to save the earth?" Dean asked, seeking confirmation deep in his little brother's eyes.

Leaving his eyes say what he couldn't bring his mouth to, Sam nodded.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

thanks

sifi.


	4. Chapter 4

Dawn – chpt 4

by: sifi.

--

"Well, then failure is NOT an option," Shep said and entered the room, accompanied by Tom and Dr. Fitzgerald.

"Do you mind?" the doctor frowned at Laura who held Dean against her for one more long moment while resting her lips at his neck before sliding out from behind him.

"Excuse me," she sighed and shambled into the bathroom where she shut the door and sat on the toilet resting her head on her forearm against the sink, every breath grating like broken glass all through her body.

A sharp rap on the door came just before Tom's gentle voice, "Y'alright?"

Taking another deep breath she forced herself to her feet and ran the water, splashing handfuls on her face, "Yeah, be right out," she groaned tiredly.

With a shiver she pulled the door open, leaning on the jamb, almost too tired to stand.

Her gaze slid up from Tom's gentle expectant smirk to his bright blue eyes. Mindful of where he remembered her wounds were, he slid an arm around her mid-back and motioned toward Dean's now empty bed where a two inch wide stripe of red ran across the middle third of the sheets, almost exactly where she'd been sitting.

Dean spocked his eyebrow at her and held up one of his jonnies which now bore a football sized shiny stain all its own.

Laura stopped short in Tom's arms, her heart pounding in her throat, her eyes wide as sweat started to pour. They were all looking at her; the doctor, Shep, Tom at her side, Sam and even Dean.

"Let's get you fixed up huh?" Tom suggested softly trying not to wince as her right hand white-knuckle gripped his.

_She looks terrified,_ Sam thought frowning as he threw a curious look at his brother.

_What the...? What the hell's she gonna be scared of here?_ Dean wondered, his eyes flicking over Sam's before he came forward to take Tom's place.

She shook her head, "It's okay, really, I got some 4-0 in the car, I'll take care of it myself," she half stammered as Dean led her stiltedly to his bed.

"You're already here, just let 'im stitch you up and it's done," he whispered softly as Shep drew the curtain around the bed, separating himself, Tom and Sam from the others, granting them a modicum of privacy.

Dr. Fitzgerald snapped a pair of latex gloves on and pat the bed. As Dean sat her down and stepped back her eyes bolted to his with almost physical strength.

"I'm right here," he assured her.

"Mr. Fogerty tells me you were a nurse in Nebraska," the doctor started, recognizing the nearly paralyzing fear that had gripped the woman though he didn't understand it.

"Uh huh," she nodded watching his hands grasp the zipper of the jacket.

"Let's just see what's going on under here okay?" the exam chatter started as he pulled the tab down, "So what kind of a nurse were you? OR? ER? OB/Gynie?" he asked conversationally.

Laura closed her eyes, her breath holding in her chest as she croaked, "ER," a blast of cold hit her skin trading places with the pool of wet heat that had been largely contained by the fluid repellant jacket.

A shiver that was more of a spasm twisted her faintly as she shook her head and breathed, "No," grasping the inner edges of the jacket and pulling them tight around her again, her eyes pinned to the floor behind the doctor.

Slowly Dr. Fitzgerald lowered himself into a crouch in front of her and waved his hand, her eyes didn't move and she didn't blink. He turned his gaze to Dean who was just stiffly lowering himself onto a stool with a disturbed frown twisting his mouth.

"Miss Finnegan?" Dr. Fitzgerald said softly.

"Huh?" she huffed, her eyes still fixed on the floor.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Slowly she nodded though her expression remained unchanged, and again, her eyes refused to move.

Dean moved forward as the doctor moved back, his un-casted hand gently wrapped around her deeply bruised left, "Hey, let go now, lemme see okay?"

Finally her eyes flicked to his and held fast, she took a tremulous breath and nodded as he finished unzipping the jacket and separated the edges loosing a sheet of blood and fluid from the protective lining into her lap where it splattered onto the floor.

"Aw hell," he grunted as the doctor tossed a blanket onto the floor and rose.

"I'll be right back, just gonna get a few things," he said as Dean nodded, his eyes never leaving hers, his expression twisted in curiosity.

The instant Dr. Fitzgerald was out of sight Laura took a deep breath, turned her head and smiled faintly, leaning her forehead against Dean's temple.

"You okay now?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Let's get rid of the jacket," he urged sliding it over one shoulder while she slid it off the other, the myriad burns, blisters, and bits of charred skin leaping off that once pristine alabaster canvas, each insult vivid and inflammatory, steeling his resolve to do everything possible to win this war, or as she'd intimated earlier, to stop it from happening.

Blood and water ran from the hole in her forearm down to where her bruised and swollen fingers were curled around her knee, and started to soak the jeans there.

"You're a little bit of a mess," he muttered following the length of the diagonal tear the marauder had caused, the edges of the skin starting to curl open leaving connective tissues and muscle visible to the eye.

What areas of her skin that was clean seemed only to be so because the fluid from the burns must have washed the blood away. Bloody patches and smears were crusted with dirt and leaves, and woody detritus remained plastered to her.

He raised his casted arm, his puffy and also darkly bruised fingers angling toward the slash, and a little pocket of flesh made by a child's hand. He watched her curiously as she half smiled and nodded.

"It's okay," she assured him.

"You wanna tell me what that was with the doc?" he asked gently pressing on the distended bit of skin.

She shrugged.

She watched his fingers push the pocket, and breathed deep the burning heat that erupted behind the motion as the bloody contents were pushed upward toward the edge.

"C'mon, what's goin on here?" he asked peering down into the pool and wincing as the level of faintly shimmering red bobbed with his prodding.

She moved his hand away and rolled her own upward from the base of the pouch, a glut of viscous and almost stringy red spewed over the edge of the skin and down her belly to soak into her filthy jeans.

"Holy hell..." he grimaced looking into her face as she pressed the palm of her hand to the wound, keeping the skin down.

His eyes fell to the stitches Shep had put into the front and back of her side, _What happened there anyway? You never did tell me... why do you think you have to carry it all by yourself?_

Her eyes were closed and her breathing though shallow was at least even.

The years of practice he'd got from raising his little brother left no doubt in his mind, there was something bothering her, _She wasn't like this last night, or whenever it was, man it seems like ages ago. I don't get it, _he wondered and took inventory, _okay she's in pain, that's a given, but she's afraid, oh come on, afraid of what? Whatever it is, doesn't matter, fact is she IS afraid..._ he chewed his bottom lip and ran his hand down the side of her head.

She turned pressing her lips to his palm, "I should go, get a head start, gotta get to Bobby's and make sure everything's in order..." she muttered, "Just kinda tired, y'know?"

"So let the doc fix you up, then go back to the motel and get some sleep, we'll call Bobby and tell him you'll be a few hours later," he suggested.

Laura shook her head, "Gotta take advantage of its downtime, it's resting... it's learning, and studying," she whispered quickly, "It's trying to find ways to identify us, to track us, to track you and Sam, it wants what you have... it'll kill you to get it..."

Her heart beat thundered against his hand on her back, water squeezed from her eyes and her breathing was starting to feel sporadic.

"Are you in contact with that thing?" he asked struck by the sudden insight as Dr. Fitzgerald returned carrying a tray full of medical supplies.

"I felt it lay down, if I try, I can feel it burrowing veins of poison through the earth," she half hiccoughed, "God help us if we can't stop it..." her eyes opened to Dean's but quickly caught on the doctor before dashing back down to the floor, all hint of responsiveness gone again.

He cast a curious look at Dean who shrugged and shook his head, just as baffled as the doctor was.

"Okay Miss Finnegan..." he started.

"Laura," Dean corrected.

"Laura, we're gonna need to get the bra off you..." he looked pointedly at Dean.

"Uh uh, I ain't goin' anywhere with her like this. I've seen it all anyway," he argued noting that the muttered conversation between Sam, Shep and Tom on the other side of the curtain seemed to grow just a little louder.

A moment later they had her wrapped in a gown with the opening in front.

"Okay good, now can I have you lay back..." he urged.

Slowly she pivoted and did as requested, her left hand gripping Dean's right while he sat beside her and the doctor worked from her right side. She closed her eyes and ground her lower lip between her teeth.

Dean's gaze flicked back and forth between her tormented expression and the doctor's concerned one.

The surgeon wasn't happy about the quantity of wounds or length of time they'd been neglected, and he began to ask questions he really didn't want the answers to, especially not after hearing what had happened at the last hospital the boys had been at.

"Burns?" he asked.

Laura nodded, her tongue flashing out to wet her parched lips, "Barbeque lighter," she explained.

"And here?" he gingerly touched the stitching at her side.

"Bullet hole got barbed wire threaded through it," she gushed and felt Dean's hand squeeze hers in sympathy as the doctor hissed through his teeth.

"And this?" he traced the line of the slash.

Dean watched her breath hitch, "Knife..." she lied.

He prodded at the leaking pouch, "She stuck her hand in there," she gasped then whimpered.

The doctor assessed the slash, testing the borders of the skin, spreading them open to see how deep the cut went then pushing them together to see if there was a chance that the damaged skin would hold, or if he'd have to cut the borders before stitching them together.

At her side Dean gently continued to wipe away the stream of tears that slid down her temple as the doctor prodded and assessed.

He grimaced when he reached the waistband of her jeans and lifted it up to see how much further the slice went, then sighed.

"Okay Laura you're gonna need to take those jeans down for me..."

Her body shook with silent sobs as her hands moved to the button and opened it.

Frowning deeply Dean leaned forward, his lips to her ear, "S'okay sweetie, s'okay he's just gonna get you patched up," _this is the girl who ran around nekked for 3 months in the Sidhe universe?_

She nodded, her eyes squeezed tight as she worked the gummed up zipper down and feebly pushed the right side of the gluey garment off her hip.

"Here, lemme give you a hand..." Dr. Fitzgerald offered softly, curling his fingers into the fabric on both sides of her pelvis and gently tugging them downward.

"No..." she breathed, "...wait... no, don't," she shook her head, her hands clasping at the material.

A light bulb went on in Dean's head as he wrapped his arm around her head and whispered softly, "It's okay, you're safe, he's just gonna stitch you up, you're okay," he assured her so low that no one else could hear what he was saying.

"Please..." she whispered desperately with tears flowing freely and sobs threatening to come loudly.

"Just a couple inches Laura, I just need to get to the end of this cut," Dr. Fitzgerald explained, looking into the elder hunter's watery eyes before he gave a gentle tug that ended it all.

The waistband of the jeans slid from her fingers and over her hips and with a gasp her eyes burst open, "No, stop. Stop! Don't TOUCH ME!" she barked breaking free from Dean to pull the gown closed over herself while her hands frantically sought her pants and pulled them up, quickly fastening them and rolling from the bed.

"Sammy," Dean called, hoping she wouldn't bolt as he pushed himself to his feet.

"That's it, nuh uh, I can't..." she shook her head frantically, her eyes saucer wide as Sam slid behind the curtain, and after quickly helping Dean to his feet, moved to stand beside Laura.

"Hey, it's okay..." he started to try and soothe but she shook her head holding the jonnie tightly closed over herself.

"Nuh uh... No, I uh...I'm good, s'okay, just there's things gotta get done," she looked from Sam to Dean then to the jacket that lay across the foot of the bed.

She grabbed the heavy, half-soaked garment searching through the pockets until she had her car keys firmly in hand. Beneath her arms the jonnie was already soaking through with a fresh red diagonal stripe down the front.

"Laura hold on now, c'mon, you gotta get fixed up here..." Sam tried to reason, his arms strong and warm behind her.

She shook her head still fighting to dam the tears and quell the shaking that was actually visible, even with her arms wrapped tightly around her torso, "S'okay, I'm fine really, it's, I'll... Bobby... he can, or at the motel, I can... I got 4-0 in the car, and everything..." she tried to slow her breathing as Dean moved to her side as well, he and his little brother forming a protective wall around her, "I need a shower," she nodded pressing away the lines of tears with the heel of her hand as she slowly regained composure.

"Sorry, there just isn't time," she sniffed shaking her head. Without a thought she unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down enough to tuck the jonnie inside.

"Huh, okay, that's better," she huffed smiling awkwardly at the doctor who nodded and gave a faint smile of understanding.

Abruptly she turned against Sam, looping one of her arms around his neck, drawing him down so she could kiss his cheek, "Thanks, sorry," she sniffled again and stroked his smile gently then clutched his big brother tightly to herself.

"I...there's, you know... things," she breathed faintly into his ear, "Lotta stuff to do y'know?"

Over her shoulder Dean met his little brother's eyes, the two men sharing a look that was both knowing and confused. They both had a good idea of what had caused her reaction, but not necessarily why now.

"Alright," he nodded softly, "and hey...nothing to be sorry about," he pressed his lips to her cheek, "but do us a favor before you head out to Bobby's okay? Take Shep with you, let him fix you up at the motel okay?"

She nodded, "Yeah, sure."

Shep slid his head through a crack in the curtain, "Someone back here take my name in vain?"

Sam chuckled, patting him on the back as he left the cubicle to return to Tom who sat patiently, though unabashedly interested in what was going on, on the younger man's bed.

"Take her back to the motel and fix her up will ya'old timer?" Dean asked.

"Watch who you're callin' old timer youngun," he growled good naturedly and quickly assessed the situation. With a cocked eyebrow and a frown he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and turned her toward the door, "C'mon girl, let's go do what the man says, get your stinky self cleaned up, sewed up, and rested up a bit."

Laura couldn't help but chuckle as he guided her to the door. His hand snaked out and grasped the bucket of supplies the doctor had brought in with him, "Thanks Doc," he chirped happily then called over his shoulder, "Call if y'need anything."

Dean and Dr. Fitzgerald watched Shep support her down the hallway and around the corner before he began the examination of his _real _patient, and with a quick backward glance down the hall, then a look into the young man's worried gaze, "She doesn't let ANY of it out does she?"

Dean shook his head, "I wish to hell she would," he sighed.

--

tbc.

Please R&R

thanks sifi.


	5. Chapter 5

Dawn – chpt 5

by: sifi.

--

"So girl what the hell was that show about?" Shep asked bolting the door and making sure the salt line was still in tact as she headed for the bathroom.

"Just some old ghosts, I'll be out in a few minutes," closing the door she ran the shower and quickly stripped, finally taking a moment to examine the wounds that hadn't been tended yet, the lowest end of the slice the marauder made went half way down her thigh to finish in a whip-like curl on the outside of the leg. The last part of it that she figured would need stitches was just a little below and outside of the crease.

"Missed it by that much," she sighed knowing that a few centimeters more toward the inside and her femoral might have been compromised. If that'd been the case, she very likely wouldn't be standing here right now. "Small mercies," she sighed stepping into the steaming hot water, letting it wash away the filth on the outside at least.

Wrapped in a towel and carrying another she noticed Shep had stripped the sheets off one of the beds and was ready to do some sewing.

"So, what did you and Tom come up with last night?" she asked arranging herself and the towels on the bed to make the task as easy on the man as possible.

"I irrigated the whole thing as best as possible in the shower so you don't have to worry about that," she nodded as he slid his glasses on and shined the light down on her.

"There's a lot to cover, Tom's a helluva researcher. I'll have you know, little man learned everything he knows from my nephew," he muttered moving down the line, assessing the wound with a long practiced eye.

"Really?"

"Meh, I'm sure daddy-bear played _some _part, well and maybe some of it's a natural gift, but I lay odds on _my_ boy," Shep smiled.

"How'd you all come to know each other?" she asked with her hands behind her head.

Shep smiled gently, dug out the old 'story-time' voice he used to use when Tommy was a youngster, and began to tell the tale of how he and Tom met the Winchesters. In no time, the woman was fast asleep and breathing lightly while he did his duty.

--

Vibration caught its attention.

As it lay in the earth's embrace its focus scanning slowly in the direction it last felt the energies it hunted, _The Chosen and his champion are shielded,_ it was almost ready to believe all three of them had escaped, until that flavor trembled from many miles away.

_Fear. No matter the realm the taste is unmistakable, and fear shall be my weapon. Destroy the emissary, they will be unprotected, and when I find them, I will take their power, and their knowledge will take me to the betrayer._

With the summoning of desire and the direction of focus; corded tendrils reached outward toward the vibration. It slithered toward the taste of vulnerability and an exhausted mind plagued with a need for something called atonement.

--

"You sure you wanna be pushing your limits there young man?" Tom asked looking up as Dean sat up straight and leaned forward, groaning faintly with the depth of the stretch.

"Mmmman that feels good, besides I'm being careful, _believe _me Tom, the last thing I want is for any of these damned holes to open up," his gaze flicked to his little brother's gentle smile, "How're you holding up Sam?"

The younger hunter nodded, "Tired. Stiff. But okay," he agreed.

"Yeah well you're both still fighting infections, so don't go thinking that just because you have a minute to breathe here, that either of you's ready to get back in the ring just yet," Tom admonished warily, after all he knew these boys.

At the foot of his bed Dean raised both his arms, his right moved far more freely than his left as he swung the casted limb slowly backward and forward, then up and around, searching for his range of motion, "Man this is effed up right here, I feel like I could go nuts if I can't straighten out my arm man," he grunted noting the crunchy feeling in his shoulder and the stretching and pinching along his forearm at the incision sites.

"And why're they gonna cut it off and give me a new one later?" he asked tapping the fiberglass casing, "That just doesn't make sense in my book," he grumbled, now standing at the window, and holding on tightly with his good hand while he bent his knees slowly stretching the grossly damaged muscles at the fronts of his thighs.

Burning trembling held his breath in his chest as he held the stretch at its most painful point yet, "God that hurts," he croaked.

"Breathe through it, you'll be alright," Sam nodded glancing upward from the clean notebook he was working with, trying to make heads and tails out of Shep and Tom's previous night's findings.

Dean gritted his teeth and pushed while his legs quaked threatening to let him spill to the floor, "Tom... stuck," he bit, then sighed relief as the older man shoved a chair behind him and helped him to sit.

"Wow that just sucks out loud," he groaned rubbing the feeling back into his thighs while he cast a worried glance at their friend.

"Don't worry, it just takes time Dean," Tom assured him pushing his glasses back up his nose before pushing the elder Winchester and his chair over to Sam's bed so they could get back to work organizing their information.

"Sucks to be gettin' old dun'n't it?" Sam cracked trying to hold back a smile.

"Beats the alternative. Besides... who you callin' old whippersnapper? At's it, no poptarts for you!" Dean cawed in a cartoon voice then smacked his gums together to pull a chuckle from his limited audience.

"Alright, so where're we at?" he asked turning the Encyclopedia Mythica Volume 2, to face him.

His eyes were drawn immediately to the top inner quarter of the left page where a photo of an ancient Babylonian artifact was imbedded. He frowned while reading the caption then turned his gaze to the likeness of a creature carved from obsidian.

Warmth like penetrating desert heat stole through him as he studied the sight before him.

Layers of time and lives peeled back through the ages as..._ his gaze moved over each of the creatures' three faces, one more fearsome than the next. Each sinister countenance bore a mouth full of sharply curved serpentine fangs, dripping with pearly venom. Its head was wreathed with thick iron-like feathers, each one ending in a spiny quill that glistened menacingly no matter what light it was viewed in. _

_Enormous multi-layered wings grew from the creature's back, bands of leather criss-crossed its chest, woven between its three breasts, to culminate in a waist belt and scabbard slung low, barely above the roots of its three erect penises. _

_A gust of warmth blew his hair back as he circled the monstrosity before him, his eyes roaming up and down, noting each of the three eyes in each of its three faces, 'The guards, the gallas; have left, there is no one here to save you,' he thought as he stood before the creature's central face, its eyes held fast to him, glaring furiously as it snapped its center jaw together, the other two echoing the near-challenge a heart beat later, loosing acidic spittle onto the ochre colored floor. _

"_You do not belong here child, this world is NOT for you," he said._

_The language of the Anunna, the first of the Greater Gods under Enki; rolled from the creature's central mouth, taken up in syncopation by the other two of its faces as it spoke in angry retort. _

_Dean felt the mouth that was, and yet was not his reply, "God or no, your father made the choice. The crime was his, the punishment is MINE to decide, if you wish to lay blame then seek out your sire, not me or the galla," this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation._

'_My son? My woman?' he wondered fleetingly where they might have gone to spend the day, 'Are they with the lions, I wish I were with them.' _

_Once more the creature hissed its angry sounds, its powerful form and figure towering over his own and yet he had no fear. _

_A slight shake of the head made plain his stance, "No. The galla will remain in the underworld for eternity, that is HIS punishment for the part he played. You may NOT have him. There are no rights left in this world for your kind, the deeds of your sire has seen to it Nergal. Be grateful for my mercy, I may easily have chosen death for you and yours instead..." he sighed wearily and turned his back on the creature before him, moving to the balcony that encircled his throne room, giving him view over all his creation. _

_A thunderous clap of its layered wings brought forth a gust of heat that pushed against his back while segmented talons rose into the air above him as if to strike. A sad smile raised the corners of his mouth as he turned, his finger touched the creature's breast bone, and a susurration from his lips bent the beast in half, wringing it tightly upon itself, drawing it into a world it didn't want, driving it from the one it did. _

_It screamed in agony and swore its vengeance as the stone around it began to shudder and crumble._

"_The crime was against me and mine, the price to pay is MINE to determine, not yours nephew," he sighed as the enraged youth was sealed beyond the first Gods' realm, but not without a final warning spoken into his ear. 'You will try,' Enki thought sadly, '...and mine will be ready when you do.'_

_A broad smile stretched his lips as curious eyes peered around the corner, watching the floor and walls return to their pristine state. _

_The boy's finger traced the luminous blue-white words inscribed on one of the walls; those words that matched the ones his father spoke. A glimpse at his King brought an awe-filled grin before young legs carried the child across the warm stone and into his father's waiting embrace. _

"_Father! Father! Guess what?" the boy asked leaping into his arms. _

"_What?" he asked lightly while pressing his mouth to his son's temple. _

"_I got my sight!" the boy grinned leaning back, and with a blink showed his father this newest of his gifts. _

_Another floe of warm desert wind fanned the flames of love in his heart as he felt himself grin and fill with joy, his arms closed snug, holding his boy to his breast, feeling their hearts beat together he'd never been more content. "That's my boy," he sighed turning once more toward the balcony. _

--

"...that's right Dean, just take a breath now, come on, in and out, there you go," Tom's own breath shuddered in his throat while beside him Sam ran a shaky hand down his sweat streaked face, and on the cold floor Dean's back arched as he gasped, ripping air from the room into his lungs with his first real breath in over a full minute.

"Dean?" Sam asked, his voice barely above a whisper, his hand behind his brothers' head, "C'mon now look at me," he directed watching the older man's eyes roll through the room, lighting on objects, and finally on his and Tom's faces respectively.

"_What the hell?" _he felt his mouth move and heard sound come out but it wasn't a sound he'd made. His heart beat strong and fast in his chest, his throat closed for a moment as a flash of red and orange tumbled across his mind, caught up in a desert wind, "_Wait! wait!" _ he knew he spoke the words. _'Oh man, this just sucks, I had a stroke, I threw a clot, I'm gonna freakin die, I can't talk, there's some nasty little blood clot in my brain just waiting to shut me down... never shoulda lived this long anyway. Why can't I say..._ strobing flashes of reds, oranges, and blue-white cube-ish designs on tiles spun in his mind's eye, and he knew. His eyes slammed shut, his hand pressing over them, hoping to keep the moment inside his head just long enough.

"_Ne...it was banished, it warned me it would be back... my duties... a contract... I had no choice... the price was known_," he breathed in a voice that was his, and still more than his own; and in a language heard only by three other men, in nearly 9 millennia. Two of those men were dead, and the third was gaping at him, fighting icy shivers up his spine.

"Get him up Tom, sit him up..." Sam instructed feeling his skin crawl as he snagged the paper and pen off the bed. He laid the notebook into his brothers' lap, and pressed the pen into his right hand then crouched at Dean's side shaking and sweating more now than before. He'd heard that language once before, and though he didn't remember much of the experience, what he DID remember was a fear of being lost to his brother. _That was when he tried to... well not him, that... what'd he call him? Something –ki, ... not Enki, that's the first one... Anna... Oooh! Anunnaki! Son of a bitch tried to get Dean to kill me! Bastard! _

"God, ohgodohgodohgod... please, please Dean, please..." he breathed when the elder hunter's eyes came open, fixed on the pen, then slid to the pad of paper.

They watched him see as if for the first time the cast on his arm, which to their surprise was quickly shrugged off before his attention turned to the notebook. He drew a line and flipped a page, then grinned and turned it back

Pen touched paper and as line after line was filled with, honestly, from what Sam and Tom could see, MORE lines; John's oldest son spoke a language no _human_ has ever known.

"What the hell's goin' on Sammy?" Tom asked softly, watching Dean's hand seem to fly down the paper, "And you wanna tell me since when does your brother, of all folks," he cocked his head to the side before shooting the younger hunter an impressed half frown, "...know how to write Cuneiform?"

Sam met the older man's eyes, "I recognize it, Dean might even recognize it Tom, but there's no way in hell either of us could write it. I mean it's THE first written language, I'm not sure but I don't think it can be spoken right?" Sam asked motioning to Deans halting self-chatter.

"Pretty sure..." Tom nodded after a moment's thought.

Sam's eyes flicked to the door and he blanched, "Oh hell," he grasped Dean by the head so they were eye to eye, "Dean? Do you understand me?"

Dean nodded, his eyes flashing just a hint of fear he knew his little brother would pick up as he rattled off in an extinct language.

"Shhhhutit!" Sam slapped his hand over Dean's mouth, "Don't talk until you can talk English again," he admonished then noting the puzzled look on his big brother's face explained, "If the... if IT is sensitive to the vibration of its name, it might also be sensitive to..."

Getting the point Dean nodded and removed his little brother's hand from his mouth then continued to document as much of the encounter that he could remember.

"A language that might be as ancient as _it_ is," Tom finished, "So what language you figure he's talkin' little man?"

Sam shook his head just before a shiver shook his whole body, "I don't know."

--

Air shimmered and the questing tendril hovered within the ground, an almost magnetic force called to that bit of consciousness while the rest of the marauder dreamed of its exile. It had sworn vengeance in the name of its father, it swore an oath to see the betrayer brought to justice, the galla who betrayed its father, who betrayed all of their kind had escaped his fate for far too long already.

_It stood before the king of the gods, a being in the form of its favored human kind, tiny in comparison to his own terrifying shape and yet it could barely draw breath in the king's presence. "Give me the betrayer, give me the galla who spoke against my father," it asked._

_A slight shake of the head made his uncle's stance a certainty. "No. The galla will remain in the underworld for eternity, that is HIS punishment for the part he played. You may NOT have him. There are no rights left in this world for your kind, your sire has seen to it Nergal. Be grateful for my mercy, I may easily have chosen death for you and yours instead..."_

_As the God turned his back, fury coursed through every fiber of its being. With a leap and a flap of its wings it crossed the throne room, a taloned hand raised high in the air. _

_The God turned speaking ancient words of power that wanted to drive it to its knees. Those words coursed through the air, breeching the barrier between worlds. The finger of the first deity reached forward and touched its chest. Enki's skin was warm but solid and certain as he marked the youth for the taking. _

_Fiery agony twisted the fledgling god as it was drawn through a pinhole breech, cast into exile for all the days of earth and man. _

"_I will return for my fathers' justice! Make no mistake!" it screamed in its agony as around it stone began to shudder and crumble._

"_The crime was against me and mine, the price to pay is MINE to determine, not yours nephew," Enki sighed._

"_I and my kind will return, and we will tear this world asunder with our righteous quest!" it vowed before the breech was sealed and the first God's realm was made beyond its reach._

--

tbc.

please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	6. Chapter 6

Dawn – chpt 6

by: sifi.

--

Recognition dawned as the marauder dreamed, its tendril of focus re-routed, drawn by the cadence and soothing familiarity of the words of its own kind, _but spoken here? NOW? _the tendril halted, _Perhaps it's a trap? Perhaps it's the betrayer!_ and it was off again, racing in the direction of a warm vibration that felt like home.

_No! No it can't be... do NOT stop now!_ it shrieked inside its own mind as the warmth turned cool and the trace of language returned to obscurity, as if it hadn't been spoken at all. But even as it lay within the ground, breathing the earth and its richness, stealing what it would need; it was not the only creature that felt the ancient words spoken, and it was not the only thing drawn toward them.

--

"Well she IS the nurse, don't you think we oughtta at least ask..." Tom hissed quietly into Sam's ear.

"Ask what Tom? 'Oh excuse me nurse, my brother over there? Yeah, he seems to be channeling the first Earthly deity and suddenly can only speak in tongues and write in cuneiform, do you think that's normal?'" Sam hissed back while pinching the bridge of his nose.

His eyes flicked to Dean's inert form in the bed, where they'd placed him after he passed out. He'd been sitting on the floor with them, starting on his second page of what Sam and Tom could only imagine might be notes; when just as a spike similar to the one he felt with a vision, slammed Sam between the eyes and made his ears pop; Dean simply fell to the side unconscious.

"What was your vision?" Tom asked quietly, glancing at the nurse who sat beside the elder hunter, intent on the task of applying a fresh cast.

Sam shook his head, "There wasn't one, just this nauseating piercing pain," he turned his attention to the nurse, "'scuse me Miss?"

"Mmm hmm?" she nodded.

"He was asking earlier, why'd you take the cast off only to put another one on right away?" he asked.

"Cause the swelling's gone down by now and to check for signs of infection," she smiled.

"Are there any?" Sam asked.

She shook her head, "Well, I'm not the doctor, but so far, it looks like the infection's clearing up nicely, no inflammation at the incision sites, and the swelling's almost completely gone."

Sam glanced at his big brothers' face, trying to figure if he was still out or playing possum, "So, do you think, I mean, does it... will he be, you know... maybe the doctor won't have to go back in?"

She smiled rubbing a blob of lotion between her gloves and smoothed it over the fiberglass, then gave the cast a cursory assessment and slid the gloves off while pushing easily against the floor and 'woosh-ing' over to Sam's bed.

"Well, like I said, I'm not the doctor, but from what we were all expecting, that he's come even this far is kind of a miracle," she looked at the open page of the tome and lifted up the cover, "So, whatever God you pray to, keep up the good work and maybe he'll walk out of here one seriously lucky man."

"So there IS hope..." Sam smiled brightly, his eyes shining through the sudden film that covered them.

She patted the top of the young man's foot, "Where there's life, there's hope."

She 'woosh-ed' back to Dean's bedside and gathered up her supplies as out in the hall, one of the hundreds of dark gray igigi that roamed the hospital; all of whom seemed to converge on this room seconds after Dean started speaking in that ancient tongue; tried to ram the barrier.

Sam winced as a mottled warty gray face mashed against the barrier snarling darkly before zipping away, "Wow there's a lot of 'em," he breathed, "Y'think they heard him?"

Tom felt his brows furrow as he followed Sam's line of sight out the door and down the hall, "Who the nurses? Nah, and even if they did..." he shrugged.

Sam huffed faintly before remembering he belonged to an extremely exclusive group. He'd become so accustomed to the sight of the igigi, always flitting here and there, almost always on the periphery of his vision and usually seeming to avoid his sight. What disturbed him, as it did the others who were able to see them, was when they fed.

_After reading Alex's journals I can't help but think that they don't necessarily like that I can see them. Why do they work so hard to stay out of my sight or on the periphery of it, Laura what the hell did you do to me? And can we use this somehow?_

"No man, not the nurses," he smiled softly and moved to his brother's bed.

"Dean?" he sat down.

"I'm gonna run down for some coffee Sam, you want?" Tom asked stretching out his own kinks.

"Yeah," he nodded, "Bring one for Dean too okay?"

Tom nodded leaving John's boys alone for a few moments. _Too much today, too much these last couple days..._ the scope and magnitude of what he'd seen, what these boys and that woman had wedged into his and Sheps happy little hunting ground had his heart and head bumping into each other in an effort to reconcile it all. _What... how have they been dealing with this? Those poor kids, first John, then all the talk about Sammy, then the gate, then Dean's deal, how the hell did he get out of that? Bobby said he'd only got a year, did Sam do something? Did HE do something? Did he find a way? And all to wind up smack in the middle of a showdown between Gods and their demonic armies, I just don't get it, s'gotta be some kind of destiny or something, just gotta be. _

Once out of the elevator he pulled his cell.

"Hey Bobby, Tom, you got any books in that library that can decipher Cuneiform?"

--

"C'mon Dean, I know you're tired man, we're all beat, but if you wake up and let me know you're back in your own head, I swear I'll let you sleep 'til morning," he spocked his eyebrow watching his big brother's chest rise and fall without missing a beat, "C'mon man, it wasn't funny the first time, and it's a helluva lot LESS funny now! You're getting into a bad habit of scaring me dude, and I gotta say I'm not likin' it," he sighed motioning to the bed across the room and all their research so far.

"This is too big for us Dean. I hesitated AGAIN and it almost got you killed, you coulda wound up dead because I waited, and look where we landed, another hospital, thank God Tom and Shep haven't been hurt, but you know as well as I do that it's only a matter of time," a shaky breath worked its way into his lungs while that damnable mist he just couldn't ever seem to get full control over, covered his eyes, "Look Dean, way I figure it man, you freakin' OWE me okay, last year, waiting for your... expiration date had me half crazy... then this whole past week, and okay so that's pretty much my fault, I shouldn't..." he shook his head.

"Mmm?" Dean grunted. His head waggled back and forth on the pillow.

"Dean? C'mon wake up," Sam urged.

Bright green eyes fluttered open and latched quickly onto the darker blue-greens of his little brother, "Sam...s'up?" he groaned weakly.

"You okay?"

"Mmm, head hurts, a lot," he frowned and attempted to push himself upright.

"Hold on," Sam pressed the button on the guard rail, elevating his big brother.

"Aaaagggod," he squeezed through clenched teeth and leaned forward, pressing his head into his hand as a stream of blood popped out of his nose flowing freely onto the sheets.

"Dean?" Sam grasped him by the shoulders.

"Hurts," he panted drawing his knees up toward his chest, "Sam..."

"Nurse..." Sam breathed with his heart in his throat as Dean's puffy casted fingers wrapped around his forearm.

"Not yet... down..." he hissed sliding down on the bed. He pressed his head back into the pillow, his fingers pinching his nose as the head of the bed started to recline.

"You shouldn't hold your head back, you'll swallow it and wind up making yourself sick," Sam got up and shut off the lights to the room, relieved when Dean's breathing started to even out.

"Oh God... ohgodohgodohgod..." he groaned sitting back up and squeezing his forehead to his knees, his breath coming in short agonized bursts.

"Dean, lemme call the nurse..." Sam reached again for the button but the elder hunter shook his head.

"No..." his back bowed and his breath seized up for a terrifying split second before he rocked back, his blood covered hand over his face and sneezed another palm full of the fluid into it. "Oooh gross!" he grimaced as Sam frowned pouring water from his pitcher onto a towel while he gathered up the sheet, rolling the blob of red in layers of material and doing his best to clean his hand at the same time.

"Here," Sam traded the towel for the tiny ball his brother made of the sheet, "Clean yourself up," from the laundry bin he turned, "Any better?"

Dean nodded scrubbing the blood from his face, "What happened?"

"What do you remember?" Sam asked returning to the bedside with a dry towel.

"We were just starting to make some heads and tails out of the guys' notes and," he shook his head frowning, "I felt a little dizzy, probably from the stretching... where's Tommy?" he asked suddenly.

"He went down to get us some coffee," Sam sighed, visibly troubled.

_Aww man I know that look... what?_ "What?" he asked.

Sam met his deeply bloodshot eyes wondering what to tell him, wondering if he could or should try to protect him, _As much as I'd like to I can't... it's to damned important. Damnit Dean, why can't I get just one chance to protect you? _ he bobbed his head indecisively, "You've been... kinda... down for..." he looked at the clock on the wall, "about three hours."

"What?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded, "Yeah... how do you feel now?"

"Better," Dean stammered, "Fine actually..."

"Headache?"

"Gone," he cocked his head to the side, "For the love of God Sam WHAT?" he asked feeling his belly tighten, _okay maybe not so fine... what the hell's going on? What happened? Oh God... don't tell me..._

"Talk to me Sam," he frowned.

"Remember what happened when you got attacked by Tiamat and Enki saved you?" he asked.

"What part of it?"

"The vision part," Sam nodded.

"Yeah?" Dean groaned, "Uh nuh... what? I remembered that vision so it can't be..." rapid fire images flashed jumbled in his minds' eye with a piercing needle of pain that slid through his head from one temple to the next. "Ahhhh son of a bitch!" he breathed rocking slightly once more, "Guess I had another one huh?"

"Sorta...What're you seeing?" Sam asked reaching for the notebook on his bed.

"Images, flashes, heat, warm stone, lots of red and... Ne...the marauder, he's the figure pictured in the book, except the sculpture's not right," sweat beaded behind his hand as he pressed his eyes closed then opened them when Sam dropped a notebook into his lap.

"Can you read that?"

Dean looked from the notebook up to his brother, "What the hell is this?" he studied the page and a half for a long moment, "Yeah right, you picked a helluva time to grow a sense of humor Sam."

"When we were kids, who possessed you and tried to kill me?" he asked.

"The king of the Anunna," Dean responded reflexively, his expression slightly surprised.

Sam felt his lips twist upward as Dean's shook his head, "Uh, Sam..."

"What was his name?"

"Anunnaki," his big brother blurted, "Sam?"

"Who were the Anunna?" Sam rocketed.

"The fifty great gods brought into being by Anu and Ki, what the HELL is going on Sam?" he half shouted.

"Who are the igigi?" Sam pushed.

"Minor gods created to maintain the universe and ruled by Anunnaki," his hand flew to the bridge of his nose as he leaned into it breathing hard and tight, "Sam so help me God if you don't stop asking me these questions I'm gonna..."

"How can we stop them?" he rocketed.

Dean's mouth opened and a series of words Sam recognized as belonging to that ancient language slipped out with a fresh trickle of blood from his nose, "Gahh Sam... stop!" he pleaded, a faint whimper of obvious pain catching in his throat as he held the towel up to his face.

"Damnit!" Sam barked, his eyes darted to the door where half a dozen igigi were throwing themselves at the barrier once again and scowling menacingly into the room. Sam swallowed hard, his breathing shallow and fast but steady as he tapped the notebook again.

"Can you read this?" he asked again.

"It says 'get off my ass Sam!' No Damnit I can't read it! Okay? Do you GET it?" he yelled, _I just want my woman and son back, can't you just be a little boy again? Please? For just a little longer?_

"Do you remember anything else?" Sam asked sitting back in the chair deflated.

Dean frowned, his face waxy and wet, visibly exhausted already as he shook his head, "Nothing, there's nothing more," he scooted down in the bed tossing a scowl at the little brother who covered him.

"Sorry Dean, I had to."

"I know."

The elder hunter drifted to sleep and true to his earlier promise Sam let him go, just glad to have him back in his own head, and grateful for the couple new puzzle pieces his big brother had supplied.

_Now all we gotta do is figure out how they all fit._

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	7. Chapter 7

Dawn – chpt 7

by: sifi.

--

She saw the fist coming long before he raised his arm, she saw it coming as she had a thousand times before, it came when he leaned back, it came when he drew his arm back, it came as he gritted his teeth, and it came as he leaned forward, drawing that arm forward with him. His fingers grabbed the skin of his palm and curled tightly into it, the knuckles tightening to form a flesh and bone hammer and it was coming right for her head, again.

A quick internal assessment brought a flash of insight. There were no butterflies, there was no electrical buzzing, there was no shortness of breath or lack of clarity. The moment stopped around Janie Frank as her left came up to block and her right hand, held firm with her fingers curled back, jacked straight into his jaw.

She watched his head snap back around, a smile of satisfaction stretching her lips an instant before a spear of wood erupted through her breastbone.

"Took your time," he huffed with a wince as he worked his jaw.

"I didn't want to ruin your good time," Tamara patted his shoulder and frowned as the body of Janie Franks writhed on the ground, her eyes pure black and still somehow glowing with hatred.

"You exorcise this one Jack, you need the practice," she handed him the Rites of Exorcism and sat on the porch steps.

"Tam, you know I'm not..." he started to protest.

"You're Isaac's brother, you wanted this, I wanted you OUT of it remember?" she pointed out.

Slowly he nodded and began to read, to avenge his brother he'd learn the rites.

"I thought you said Bobby wanted one of them?" he asked motioning to the writhing demon possessed woman in the lime pentagram.

"We can't take the chance of transporting it across three states, it's too dangerous," she shook her head, "I'm sure we'll run across something... or one of the other hunters will, Bobby's hoping to get about ten of us together," she explained.

"Including those kids that opened the gate?" he asked.

"He swears it wasn't them, he swears the four of them were there to stop it," she defended once more.

"And you believe him?"

"I do," she nodded sadly, "We weren't there, Isaac and I were furious when we heard about what happened, and after everything, all the rumors about John Winchester's boys," she shook her head, "...to find that the gate had been opened and an army unleashed... we were irate and terrified, and like most other hunters, a bit hasty in our judgment," she shook her head.

"But?" Jack asked, he'd asked his sister in law on several occasions over the last year what exactly had happened and she'd frequently avoided or changed the subject entirely.

Tamara swallowed down the tears that wanted to come, "Bobby and Ellen have both sworn, on Isaac's name that those boys had nothing to do with opening that gate and letting those bastards out. I have to believe they wouldn't tarnish his name, not after being there and seeing..." she took a shaky breath and shook her head again, "No, Bobby wouldn't do that," she met her brother in law's searching eyes, "and neither would those boys," she motioned to the incapacitated demon, "Do you really think we should bring it?"

"We've got it," he shrugged placing a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Alright, go get that travel kennel we saw in the back yard, I'll get the rest ready," she clapped him on the arm and turned to the truck without so much as a glance at the barely cogent demon on the ground.

--

'_No! You gotta fight it... don't, please don't...can't breathe, stop... please Dean stop!' _

_It was virtually impossible, but somehow his big brother had him by the throat, holding him so high off the ground it was scary, he could feel his feet flailing in the dark damp night air, and Dean's arm bounce with the motion but his grip never faltered. _

_Something wanted him dead, something was scared of him and it was using his big brother to try and make him go away, "Please..." he choked feeling tears starting to come. _

_Something moved behind those alien eyes that gazed out from his brothers' face, and then he was flying, skidding on the ground, sticks and dirt and rocks scraping his skin, sliding down his 'big boy' pants and getting up under his t-shirt. _

"_Run Sammy! Run!" Dean's voice cracked even though his eyes weren't back to normal yet. _

'_Dean say 'run'... Sammy run,' he thought and felt his legs pumping beneath him, heedless of the sharp sticks and ground clutter that poked his little feet, 'I want MY Dean back!' his heart cried as he ran for all he was worth toward the building that looked so far away. The place where daddy was sleeping on the floor in their room after he got hit in the head with the door, 'daddy will bring my Dean... daddy will fix it!' _

_Big hard arms grabbed him and he screamed as the ground flew so much faster beneath them now. _

"_Shhh it's daddy, I gotcha sweetheart, I gotcha..." _

_Warm breath, low vibration against his back, and sharp tangy smells filled his little lungs bringing him warmth from the inside out. _

_Golden light wrapped around them as they entered their room in the building and those big hard arms wrapped tightly around him, squeezing him against the hitching, bobbing wall of daddy's chest. _

"_Sammy?" _

_The hands turned him around, holding him around the belly, leaving wet prints on his skin all the way through the material. _

_He looked into big, sad, watery brown eyes that made him want to cry, his hand petted the black bristles of daddy's beard and the other one went into his mouth as he kicked his feet and grunted. _

"_You okay Sam?" that trembly bristled face asked kneeling down at the couch and setting him on his feet on one of the mushy cushions. _

"_Wan' Dean," he mumbled around his hand. _

_Daddy's face got wet and he nodded, "I know baby I know... I'm gonna get your brother back I promise... but I need to look at you, make sure you're okay, okay?" _

_He nodded pulling up his t-shirt and looking down at some places that were hot and ouchie feeling, "Uh oh," he pointed to a cluster of scratches then frowned pulling a small stick out of his big boy pants. _

"_Is that all?" daddy asked peeking under the elastic, satisfied that the scratches were the worst of those owies, "How about here?" the big fingers touched his neck. _

"_Mm," he frowned pulling back and pushing the questing daddy-finger away from where it hurt._

"_Can you breathe okay?" daddy frowned. _

_He nodded and daddy kissed his head, "Okay sweetheart I gotta go get Dean, I want you to go in your room and stay there till Pastor Jim or I get back okay?" _

"_Or Dee?" he asked feeling himself smile for the first time in it seemed forever that night. _

_Daddy didn't seem to be sure, but he smiled a little and nodded, "Or Dean. Your brother loves you Sammy," he said. _

_He nodded sliding off the couch and ran to the bedroom while daddy clanged around then went back outside. _

_He hooked his toes into the space under the mattress and pushed himself into Dean's bed then laid his head down on Dean's pillow. The smell of his brother filled him up and brought back the comfy warm feelings as he held it to his chest and face. _

_Somehow, in a way that had never NOT made sense, inside his body he could feel his brother; the one who made him pop-tarts and read him the fishy story, and made everything the way it was supposed to be, growing tired. There was something big and scared inside his Dean, something that shook with fear when it looked at him, and Dean was fighting it. Dean was fighting it for him. _

_Red walls shook thunderously and he was almost certain he'd felt his room sway. _

_Leaping out of bed he dashed across the warm stone mosaic toward a horrible cacophony of stone and metal clanging furiously, barely drowning out the shouts and cries that rose on the night air. _

_Carefully he crept to the balcony's edge and slowly rose enough to peer over the stony embankment. Far below, yet still halfway up the tower raged a melee. If he didn't know better he'd say that every single one of Anunnaki's workers seemed to be storming against the Gallas, the Palace guards. 'But that makes no sense,' he thought, 'Why would the Igigi be rebelling? And where is Anunnaki to turn them back?' _

_A clarion battle cry soared through the air on the back of a lion's roar and he peered over once more, 'Mother... she'll put an end to this nonsense, but where is father?'_

_The door to his chamber flew violently open, "Marduk!" a voice he knew well called into the room. _

'_A Galla? Father must be at battle as well, I should join them,' he turned from the balcony, his eyes peering into the churning yellow ones of the Master of the Gallas._

"_There is trouble, your father has sent me to bring you to safety," he explained, "Dress quickly."_

_With haste he drew on his tunic, and sandals. He reached for his scabbard as the tower trembled once again, his footing coming loose on the stone floor, as he saw himself moving through a tunnel, the galla behind him: _

_Shadows flickered in the firelight, the sounds of battle still raging, but now above them as he was moved toward the cave riddled home of his mothers' lions where he was to shelter in safety until the battle was won. _

"_Why have they attacked? Where is Anunnaki to quell his people?" he asked of the galla. _

"_Anunnaki has not been found," the vulture headed guard answered. _

"_But why have they attacked? What purpose will this folly serve? There is no challenge to the King of the gods be they lesser or greater, he is the KING," he asked. _

_A faint call in a timbre that drew on his very bones rolled through the underground passage, and he turned, "Father..." he breathed, turning with a smile, seeing beyond and behind the enormous creature who now blocked his path. _

"_Father!" he called. _

"_Marduk... Run my son... NOW!" came the shouted warning. _

_He turned and fled as the galla reached for him, its enormous size a hindrance within the confines of the tunnel. _

_It turned in an attempt to wedge itself around to face the King of the Gods who charged through the passage, murderous fury twisting his features, his eyes blazing golden rage, his sword overhead, ready to sever the neck of anyone who would dare to conspire against him and his!_

_He turned, well out of reach of the creature now, and drew his own sword, though he knew better than to approach and jeopardize his fathers' position. He grimaced as the sword pierced through the base of the gallas' wings, driving the creature to its knees. _

_With a word of the ancient tongue, and a touch from his hand, the sword wrapped a coil of light around the incapacitated guard and Enki raised it to its feet, "You dare to jeopardize my SON! Be grateful you have your life Azazel!" _

_Careful to maintain his grip on the betrayer, the king of the Gods nodded to his child, "Your mother and the rest of the gallas have ended the battle, it is safe to return home my son." _

Sam tossed his head to the side, sweat dripping freely down to soak the pillow, his breathing shallow and stuttered as the grunts and whimpers that slid from his throat seemed to catch and rend on their way out.

"Easy there little man, it's okay, it's okay..." Tom frowned watching the boys' brows furrow while he changed the cold cloth over his forehead and behind his neck, "It's all gonna be okay Sammy, I swear to God I'll do everything I can to make sure it's okay," the words got caught halfway out as he nodded and pressed his lips tightly together, _I love you boy, I love you like my own and I won't let anything hurt you if I can help it._

"_For the highest of crimes;" Enki stood before his once most trusted of all the guards, who stood locked within words and symbols of the greatest power painted in lambs blood on the floor of the Counsel chamber, "... the betrayal of your sacred duty to your king and his kin Azazel you shall be stripped of your rank and banished from this world for all eternity. You shall bear until the end of time, the shame of the most heinous crime that can be committed."_

_Within the enormous chamber sat all 50 of the Anunna, the first of the greater Gods created to serve the universe, and the entire complement of the tower guards, the gallas. _

_In a holding chamber below the column upon which the sacred symbol was painted; squirming and jockeying for position were the thousands of igigi, the lesser gods who'd tried to charge the Tower in the hopes of overthrowing the very king who ruled them all. _

_Across the expanse of the pit sat Anunnaki, victim of betrayal by the very lesser gods he was charged with ruling, and beside him sat Inanna, the King's woman; and their beloved son Marduk. _

"_Since his is the highest of crimes and was committed against me and mine, the punishment is mine to determine. Is there any being present who would disagree?" _

"_There was an even greater betrayal my king," Azazel spoke. _

"_The uprising could not have come to pass were it not for help from within your own line, it is you own brother who has sown the seeds of this happening."_

_A mighty roar of fury rose from the ranks of those squirming below, the igigi fled and pressed against the walls that held them as two greater beings than they, coiled also in golden light became visible. _

"_You are in no position Enlil, nor is your wife, to take any action that counters my command!" Enki roared furiously back, his rage enough to silence the entirety of the chambers. _

_He turned back to the galla before him, "You shall be condemned to the underworld then to serve for all eternity, while the other conspirators shall bear the curse of banishment," he turned his gaze to the counsel of the Anunna who leaned together then nodded their agreement to his terms. _

_The king turned with a smile and a wink for his son and woman, and a nod to his trusted but shaken Anunnaki._

_As his father turned, somehow, within the bronze pillar of a man he could see another, 'Maybe it's the sight?' he wondered, delving through his father's warm liquid brown eyes and into the bright green ones deep inside. He cracked a faint smile with the realization that the rich chocolate coloring he'd seen all his life was stripped out of this pale man with strange gem-like eyes. 'Interesting... not ugly, but definitely curious...' he thought. _

_He nodded to his father as a shaft of dark gray, wielded by a suddenly freed Igigi burst through the chests of both his father and the human man inside._

_Over their shoulder the igigi twisted the blade grinning maliciously at the young boy. _

"_FATHER!" _

"DEAN!" Sam screamed breathlessly and bolted awake in the darkness of their hospital room.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	8. Chapter 8

Dawn – chpt 8

by: sifi.

--

"T'sokay Sam, it's okay," Dean said softly, pushing out of the chair and wiping away the streamlets of sweat pouring down the young man's pale fevered face.

"Dean," he breathed clutching at the jonnie above him, a yip came as he moved his arm too quickly, setting off a piercing pain through his shoulder, "Dean? You're okay? It stabbed you, I saw it..." he panted pressing his hand to his big brother's chest, feeling for that smoky shaft or evidence of its recent presence.

"No Sam, I'm okay, we're both okay little brother," he assured softly, "Sam you're sick, you've got a nasty fever, we're in the hospital, but we're both gonna be fine I promise," he soothed, rinsing the face cloth and pressing its coolness to his brother's puzzled expression.

"But I saw it, it climbed out of the lower cell, and it ran you through..." he insisted while breathing hard, the air wheezing tightly into and out of his lungs; he shook his head disbelieving.

_Enki felt his lips grin as he cupped his son's head in the palm of his hand, "No such low thing can kill me my son, and will come the day when you will have no need to fear them either such will be YOUR power."_

"No Sammy, you were dreaming," Dean arranged the pillows behind him and gently pressed him back down to the bed, "C'mon now lay back," he drew the covers up, the weight of his little brother's gaze heavy in his own eyes, the confusion in the young hunter a palpable thing that set his heart racing and his hands trembling. _Why is this, whatever this is...happening to us?_

His little brother's sweat slicked hand grasped his fingers, "Father..."

Dean shuddered a breath, blinked back the mist and nodded as he squeezed the questing hand, _I know Sam, I know..._ "Easy Sam, it's just me..." he sniffed.

"Doan go'way, doan leave me 'lone..." he wobbled his head back and forth.

"Never gonna happen little brother," he hooked the chair with his foot and drew it closer as he lowered the side rail and sat holding Sam's hand in his left, and mopping his forehead with his right, while he fought the burning pain of remorse that coursed between his heart and his head.

--

That seeking tendril of consciousness drew more surely in the calm of night toward the emissary, her flavor a memory on the back of its mind. At the door to the room in which she lay sleeping it paused, the taste of acidic fire protective over the entrance. Deeper in the earth than it had been earlier in the day, its particles almost smiled, salt could turn its body away, but not its mind.

The tendril moved forward under the stinging mineral, under the structure until it was directly beneath the emissary.

_All you fear shall come to pass, I will feed on them and grow strong until you are no more._

The tendril shot upward through the earth until its end was surrounded by living warmth, and then it slowly began to blossom.

--

A spasm bowed her back and a sheen of perspiration rose through her skin as her eyes slid open for a second before she drew a deep breath and changed her position. Her eyes flicked across the room where Tom and Shep lay once more sharing the bed, then closed again as she returned to sleep.

--

"So did Bobby tell _you _what he's got in mind or is he playing it close to the vest?" she asked sipping from her beer.

Ellen shook her head and slugged back her shot of whiskey, "All he said was there's new developments they need to share," she poured another shot and looked into her daughters' eyes, waiting.

"What if it's a trap?" Jo asked.

That wasn't the question she'd been waiting for.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not doubting Bobby, but we both know demons are manipulative sons of bitches," she arched an eyebrow at her mother fighting the memory of the last time she'd had any interaction with Sam or Dean. Sam had been possessed and she'd been too green to know it. That little bit of ignorance still brought a flush of shame to her cheeks once in a while.

"Then we'll get a chance to get rid of a couple more demons than we thought," Ellen smirked, she still hated the path her daughter had chosen, but she was glad for the opportunity to clear the air between them again. For two years it seemed as if they'd avoided each other, neither one knowing what to say or how to start. But with Bobby's invitation, she had the excuse she needed.

"This... right here? This is the hardest part about the path you've chosen, knowing who to trust and when," Ellen nodded.

"And you trust them?"

Ellen nodded despite the flashing memory of Sam's fury as he unloaded half his clip into that Jake kid. From what Bobby told her, the kid almost killed Sam, and she'd not only seen his eyes flash, but she'd also seen him open the gate with her own eyes. Nodding again, she understood the young Winchester's fury. "Bobby gave them something to help protect against possession..."

Jo snorted and took a long draught on her beer, "Demonic prophylaxis..."

Ellen chuckled, "Something like that," then she waited. She knew her daughter well enough to know that eventually the reason for her reluctance to see John's boys again would come out.

"The last time I saw either of them, Sam was possessed. The demon told me it was there when dad died..." a film slid over her eyes with the memory, the pain still cut her to the bone and she knew the demon had been telling the truth, she knew in her deepest part that John Winchester had put a bullet into her dad's brain. By now, after seeing some of the things she'd seen, and doing some of the things she'd done on her own, as hard as it was to admit, to move past the pain of loss; she also knew that if he'd done something like that, it was because her father had been suffering and wouldn't have survived anyway. It just felt like the truth.

"_...do they ever tell the truth?"_

"_Yeah, especially if they know it'll mess with your head..." Dean nodded before throwing back another slug of tequila._

Ellen felt her belly crawl, her daughter was holding on to something big, something painful and though she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it, if Jo was willing to share it, it was her duty to listen.

"If that son of a bitch is one of the ones we wind up taking out because of whatever

Dean and Sam want to share, I say we don't have any choice but to throw in. They _are_ friends," she smiled shakily while thumbing away the tears from the corners of her eyes and raised her bottle.

Across the table Ellen wrapped her hand around her daughters' and tapped the bottle with her shot glass.

_Your father would be proud of you,_ she thought, her own smile a slightly more stable variation on her daughters.

--

"No wait! Don't touch that!" Bobby tried to pull away from the small warrior who frowned darkly then jumped back as a stack of books collapsed, many of them sliding across the floor and knocking two more stacks down sending the half dozen sidhe leaping through his living room.

"Oh maaan," he groaned looking at the bearded one who stood scratching his head beside the pile with a blush on his face and shrugged.

"I told you not to touch that," he shook his head and crouched before the one who kept alternating between yanking on his hand and stomping on his foot. "I got a CORN on that foot y'little bastard! Wha'd'you want?" he finally asked.

"Mm'sary?" he asked.

"Laura?" Bobby asked.

The one she'd introduced to him as Mustardseed nodded grinning happily.

"Yeah she'll be here," he schooled the concern out of his features, "She had a long night last night and needed some rest. Shep called earlier, she'll be hitting the road tomorrow," he huffed as the man's face fell flat. He patted the diminutive warrior on the shoulder and joined the rest of the sidhe in their efforts to sort through his belongings and completely disrupt his life.

"If y'find one that deciphers Cuneiform hold it aside," he half grunted.

--

As it spread its consciousness through the surface of this world it recognized more and more of the flavors of its inhabitants, chief among them was fear.

The proud creatures of the first God's creation huddled like naked, blind rats, trembling at the thought of lengthening shadows let alone the reality of what may lay within them.

Riding the backs of human fears the marauder felt itself warm, it could reach any of them without moving from its resting place. It could soak up the life energies of this world, siphon off the unwitting humans and when it was time, when the moment was right, it would make its appearance and take the justice due, starting with the first one's favored kin.

--

**A/N - this one is painfully short, and I apologize but chpt 9 will come up quickly Maybe Tues or Wed. If you've read and have a preference please let me know. **

**As always, your reviews and selfless encouragement are the best parts of my days! There aren't thanks enough truly to express my appreciation for you, and all you do. Thank You very much. **

tbc.

Please R&R

Thanks

sifi.


	9. Chapter 9

Dawn – chpt 9

by: sifi.

--

"Where's my razor?"

"Here," Dean rinsed his and handed it behind the shower curtain, "Are you sure you're okay to travel Sam? I mean Bobby's telling everyone to get there by the weekend and the doc didn't exactly seem to WANT us to leave just yet anyway," he wiped the spots of shaving cream from his jaw and neck.

"Believe me he wants us gone, and I'm fine to sleep in the car," Sam answered softly, "And since when are you inclined to agree with a doctor?"

"Since you're still sporting a hundred and two fever that's when... tell you scared the crap outta me last night dude," he frowned and whipped the wash cloth into the sink, "Man this sucks! I want a freakin shower!"

"There's gotta be a rubber band somewhere around here, just relax and I'll find you one," Sam stepped from the shower with what the hospital considered a 'body' towel barely closing around his lean hips.

Dean did a double take as his little brother stood there grinning with a surprisingly thick patch of almost black whiskers on his chin, just under his lower lip.

"Dude..." Dean chuckled, "You uh, missed a spot."

"What'd'ya think? Yes? No?" the youngest Winchester asked gently shoving his big brother aside so he could check out the look.

"Seriously?" Dean leaned back and took a good look, "Not bad Sam. Not bad."

"Leave it?" Sam asked, "Shave it? What?"

Dean shrugged, "Leave it, what the hell right? Least till you get sick of it."

Sam shrugged, re-rinsed the razor and stuck it into Dean's bathroom kit, "Thanks. Why don't you start scrubbing up and I'll see..." he stopped, stooped at the garbage can and pulled out an empty bag,

"Gimme," he carefully wedged a hand towel into the top of the cast then pulled the bag all the way up to Dean's armpit and tied it into a firm knot, "There you go, no rubberband required... just be careful with it."

"Hmm Professor Peabody strikes again, thanks," he nodded.

Sam smiled dropping a hand onto his shoulder, "I'm gonna go get dressed and lay down till the guys get here."

Frowning Dean pressed his hand to the flush on his little brother's cheek, "You're still on fire Sam."

Wearily the young hunter nodded, "Feel like crap, and with those dreams last night... I couldn't tell if they were dreams or visions," he watched his brother nod despite his worried expression, "But I can feel like crap at Bobby's just as well as here."

"Yeah."

"Hey Dean?" he asked halfway back into the hospital room and watched that eyebrow arch expectantly before shaking his head with a faint smile, "Nevermind."

He looked into the fevered eyes behind him in the mirror, "I wish I knew Sam."

--

"So she gets there a day or so before us, Bobby said he's almost completely set up, he said the sidhe have been driving him crazy, like they're really on edge," he shook his head and huffed, "Damn man, we're actually gonna get to meet real living sidhe..." he breathed.

"Don't bet on it youngun, just cause they live around Bobby's and aren't afraid of him doesn't mean they're gonna be sitting back sipping beers with us...so, what's your point now?" Shep asked stomping into his boots.

"I don't know, seems like she shoulda just stuck with all of us, so it woulda been a three car convoy instead of two, big deal...and after yesterday y'think Dean's not gonna ask why she didn't go say g'bye?" he shook his head, unable to shake the feeling that something was off, maybe even more than it'd been yesterday with the woman.

"She wanted to get an early start Tom, girl like that, nothing's gonna get under her skin," the older hunter sipped his coffee.

"So she was perfectly fine once you got back here? Is that what you're saying old man?" Tom asked wryly.

"Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'. She took a shower, irrigated the wounds and basically crashed as soon as I brought out that old 'story time' voice..." to his pleasant surprise as soon as the words, 'story time' left his mouth Tom grinned and yawned hugely.

"Man that's not fair!" he yawned again then finally shook it off.

Shep half tossed his head back with a laugh, "What's your point?" he watched his nephew pack up the last of their gear and tried not to lose himself in memories.

--

"...alright sweetie, you guys just take your time on the road okay? Make sure you both take your antibiotics alright? Don't go skipping 'em just cause you feel better, in the end it'll only..."

"I know, I know... don't worry Sam and I've both had to take 'em before y'know, we'll be fine and we've got Shep and Tom with us," Dean chuckled into Sam's cell.

"I know... sweetie I'm sorry..." _For so much, I never meant to cause you any pain sweetheart, can you ever forgive me?_ she took a shaky breath as her eyes fixed on the turn off she'd just missed, _Son of a bitch... damnit! Way to screw up again stupid._ As the sound of Dean's voice caressed her from inside.

"Say again?" she sighed throwing her turn signal on and starting to slide into the right hand lane to reach the next turn off. As she moved, she didn't see the white van flying pell mell up the lane behind her, leaving all the other traffic behind it at a seeming stand still.

The horn blared angrily and the van jerked unsteadily to the right as it zoomed past her, the driver flipping an angry bird as she veered back into the center lane with her heart and head pounding.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

"My fault..." she checked over her shoulder and this time made it safely into the right hand lane, her foot lifting slightly from the accelerator as her belly flipped.

"Laura?" he said sternly.

"Huh?" she breathed wanting nothing more than to lean her head back, close her eyes and retreat into the dark bliss of sleep. _Better not even think about it or someone ELSE'll wind up dead because of me... 'and we wouldn't want that now would we sis?'_ Morgan's voice taunted as it occasionally did whenever she felt buried by deeds, rather than outcome.

"I said, I don't like that you're going alone, especially not when you can feel that thing, you don't know if it can use you the same way or not..." he tried to coax, "...and you're not exactly at the top of YOUR game either... you need time to rest and recover a little too y'know."

"Dean I'm fine," _Liar, _"but if we want everyone protected those wards have to be in place and there's only so much the sidhe can do, I have to be the one to draw..." _Shhhstupid!_ "to finish the incantation. Besides I'm not going to do anything taxing, just driving," she smiled, _Not that it really matters, he's probably right, if I can feel IT, it's probably gonna ride me right on through the wards and kill everyone anyway, maybe they shouldn't go there._

"...tell me that? Please?" he asked.

"Huh?" she questioned taking the wrong off ramp and turning away from the on ramp that would put her back in the right direction, "Shit! Son of a bitch!" she cursed. _Way to screw up YET AGAIN! Dumbass!_

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing, just made a wrong turn, AGAIN, look sweetie, give me a call later when you guys get on the road or get settled for the night. Just be careful with yourselves okay? You're the best things I've got," her lips trembled with the words and her sinuses started to sting, a sure sign that tears were going to come if she didn't get her mind back on the road, "Love you Dean, so much..." she sighed, "talk with you later," she barely choked out and hung up before he could reply, _yeah as if he would!_

--

Dean opened his mouth to say goodbye just as she severed the line leaving him in the chair with a scowl on his face, "Me too..." he muttered sliding the phone closed before returning it to Sam's jacket pocket.

"How was she when she left this morning?" he asked looking at Tom and Shep after scrubbing his face with his good hand.

Both men shrugged, "A little blah, but mostly okay," Tom admitted, "Why?"

"I dunno..." Dean admitted, "just sounds kinda... distracted? Down?"

"Look I wasn't wild about her going on her own this morning either, but she's a grown woman and she knows what's at stake," Tom squeezed the elder man's shoulder then motioned to Sam sleeping soundly in his bed, "You wanna wake him?"

"Not really," Dean shook his head, "Kid needs some rest," he moved to the side of the bed and sat down, his hand gentle and warm on his little brother's left shoulder, "C'mon Sam, time to go."

Tom and Shep made sure they each had a copy of post release care instructions from the doctor for each of the boys, as well as the antibiotics and wound dressings they'd need along the way.

For a man of empirical science who did his level best to accept that there were creatures out there that had never been quantified, Dr. Fitzgerald hadn't been particularly sad to hear these boys were leaving. Though releasing them this quickly and in their still less-than-optimal conditions went against everything he knew it meant to be a physician, he wished them well in their quest, and wondered if he was doing them or even the rest of the outside world a favor. He had, after all, heard some of the things they'd been talking about.

"Uhngh?" Sam grunted as Dean swept a fresh layer of sweat from him.

"Yeah I know... c'mon we'll get you settled into the back seat, fold those knees up into your chest and you'll be all good to go," the big brother smiled softly, already sliding one of his little brothers' arms into his jacket, "Boy if this don't bring back the memories..." he sighed feeling a whisper of nostalgia for those days that seemed so long ago, back when he could still hope that his little brother could be innocent just a little longer.

"Hmm gonna be late for school again huh?" Sam muttered smiling loosely, "You weren't very good with the alarm clock," he slid the jacket the rest of the way on and nodded at Tom and Shep who stood patiently waiting.

"Who needed an alarm clock? You never slept past the ass crack of dawn anyway... less you were sick..."

"True," he smiled groaning as he rose from the bed.

"Interesting look for you Sam... kinda reminds me of daddy-bear," Shep nodded upon noting the bristly patch.

"Felt lazy today," he smiled then looked between the three men, "So who's riding with who?"

"We haven't exactly figured that out... it makes sense to have one of us ride with each of you," Tom nodded.

"But," Dean interjected, "We're safer together," he waved between himself and Sam.

"But if that THING is out there looking for you both, then having y'all traveling together is a bit of the eggs all in one basket if you know what I mean..." Shep explained.

"Mmm," Sam half nodded, "Well, no offense to you guys, but me'n Dean know what we're up against... sorta... and we'll be damned if we're gonna put YOU at unnecessary risk by splitting up. You got stops plotted along the way?" He asked.

"Yep, we figured y'might feel that way," Tom handed him a sheet of paper with a dozen locations between Ohio and South Dakota listed. "We'll use those as definite checkpoints in case we lose sight of each other. The two motels are where we'll meet up tonight and then tomorrow night. And of course we've got the cells," he nodded.

"Boy you think we don't know what could be at stake here? I don't give a rats ass that your daddy's been put to rest," Shep stepped up, "You think for one instant he wouldn't gather his bits back together to come kick our asses if we let something happen t'either of you?"

"Yeah and if something happens to either one of us when we're with either one of you, do either of you think you could forgive YOURSELVES?" Sam questioned nearly overbalancing as he slung his bag over his good shoulder.

"AND even more important, if something happened to us and you guys were with us, then who the hell are we gonna count on to come save our mangy butts?" Dean pointed out, his smile containing just a hint of bobble-headed silliness.

"Boy are you doped up?" Shep examined his eyes closely.

"No," he assured.

"Neither of you is in top condition little man," Tom protested taking the bag from Sam so he didn't wind up on his behind, "Best you can figure that THING manipulated that cop to nearly crash into you, AND shoot you, and I gotta remind you about the fibbie?"

"No," Sam shook his head, "Listen, it wants us bad enough it'll get to us as it gets its strength, the best thing we can do is get to Bobby's quickly."

"Look no offense to either of you," Dean nodded, "Me and Sam separating... it feels wrong, makes my guts do funny things... y'know? Like shotgunning a twelve pack on beans and weenies night...uhhhhg..." he shuddered.

Both men's lips curled at the prospect then turned their eyes to Sam, "What about you?"

Sam nodded with a distasteful smirk on his face, "Yeah, pretty much the same feeling," he curled his lip in thought, "Course it could just be the whole feeling like crap thing too," he shrugged, "Either way I do agree with Dean."

"Okay, we'll ride behind you. If we get separated, or if anything starts to feel 'off' use the phone, if you're gonna pass a checkpoint call and let us know, same if you need to stop," Shep took hold of Dean's bag rather than watching him struggle with it so stiffly.

"Fair enough... and likewise... it knows you're with us, it could see you both as an obstruction to get through so don't go thinking you're exempt," Dean admonished as they stepped into the elevator.

--

There were other tastes it remembered as it drew strength from this strange world, these were less pungent here among these creatures, but it was similar enough to remind it of home.

It was a bitter taste, hot and sour, and there were people it lived inside, there were hitch hikers in human skin, it could use them, it could guide them if only it could regain enough strength. It would steer them toward the Champions' beacon of golden light.

Another tendril snaked toward the racing Champion and Chosen, striving to gain access to their hearts where it could search for weaknesses on the inside while it continued to nurture its revenge within the emissary.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	10. Chapter 10

Dawn – chpt 10

by: sifi.

--

Gary Nelson folded the possessed man in half, stuffed him into the trunk of his car where he'd be bound by the seals painted on the inside, and slammed the lid down with a breathless and heavy huff.

"Stupid son of a bitch wants a freakin' demon... what is this bio-101? Alright Singer, you asked for it, you got it," _And so help me I don't give a rats ass what you do to me, if you think for one minute I'm gonna let those boys put some kinda freakin' whammy on my butt! Make me think they're just a couple of pawns in all this, you got another think coming... Not when they're the ones who made way for the freakin apocalypse!_

He looked in the rear view mirror and schooled the icy coldness out of his features, "Time to put on the team-player face..." he sighed double checking his pistol then slid it into his shoulder holster.

With the day waning behind him, Gary pulled out into the Eastbound lane determined to cross the border into South Dakota tonight so he could find himself a place to hole up near Singer's auto yard, and keep his eyes on the comings and goings for a couple days. He needed to figure out who he might come up against, and why the grizzly hunter had REALLY called them all together.

--

"Thanks," Laura nodded at the bartender as he slid the burger in front of her.

"Anything else I can get for you?" he smiled easily bringing the condiments over to her as well.

"Take another beer and a glass of the Captain, neat," she arched her eyebrow while cocking a faint smile, _anything to drown out sound of my own thoughts._

"Rock glass?" he asked.

"Yep, one finger from the top please," she nodded squeezing the burger tightly between her fingers and relishing the first greasy rip into mushrooms, melted swiss, grilled onions, and ground sirloin.

By the time the sun slid beneath the blanket of evening Laura drew a sigh of relief as the whirlwind of negativity seemed to finally go with it.

"Another beer?" he asked clearing away her empty plate.

"Please," she smiled and tapped the empty rock glass, "...and."

"Same?" he asked apprehensively.

"Oh yeah," she nodded sliding off the stool and finally feeling her shoulders start to drop, "I'll be right back," she headed for the bathroom as the opening riff of Free's All Right Now pulsed in her pocket.

"Hey sweetie," she looked at her watch, "you guys settled for the night?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you who'd've thought driving could be that tiring," he smiled over the line, "How far are you?"

"I should be there around supper time tomorrow, I called Bobby right after checking in," she bolted the door while behind her, near the front door, the lights on the juke box and along the wall began to flicker.

--

_No!_ it thought as its grip on the emissary's vulnerabilities began to falter, _Never mind, there are plenty of tools I can use,_ if it's body had been fully formed, the face of the twelve year old child it inhabited would have been smiling as it reached its tendrils out to the humans that surrounded the female and took one for a test drive.

_Why the others are so easy to grasp in this condition and she eludes me is curious. But still, it makes little difference,_ as the band of its energy split into eight branches, each one seeking out the weakest of the humans there. The ones with the deepest fears, the ones with the darkest secrets, the ones it sensed who had the most to hide. These were the prey it could most easily manipulate.

"_She knows... she can sense it..."_ it told them one by one, sliding into the cracks in their armor, stirring their paranoia, their guilt, and their shame, burning them with the fires of their own failings.

--

"How's she doing?" Shep asked cracking open a beer.

Dean shrugged, his smile plainly telling, "She sounds good, a lot better than this morning," he tossed the phone to Sam, "said she'd probably make Bobby's around supper time tomorrow."

"And we'll be there a day or so after, good we should have at least a full day to go over everything before everyone gets there," Tom smiled.

"Who's confirmed so far?" Sam asked.

Shep shook his head, "No one's confirmed anything yet, but he did seem to think he'd probably get about a dozen folks to show including us, I know he had about ten others in mind to call, so, we'll see."

"Good enough to get the word out," Dean nodded.

"Dean?" Tom asked leaning forward, "What exactly IS the word? This time yesterday you were speaking in tongues, writing in Cuneiform, and minutes away from passing out on us."

John's eldest boy looked at the three curious faces around him; even Sam, for his part, for his own vision, didn't have the pieces his big brother did.

"I've been thinking about that," he nodded pushing himself stiffly out of the chair and starting to walk the room, his beer bottle swinging between his fingers. He shook his head and looked at them each again as a strange blanket of warmth seemed to wrap around him, "I'm not even sure I believe it, I mean I KNOW it, and I'm not sure I believe it, I was there. Sam's been there, maybe even for a while this morning when his fever spiked and the delirium hit..." he ran his hand into his little brother's hair and squeezed a fist full of it affectionately before ruffing the mop and getting a surprisingly easy smile from the young man in exchange.

Tom and Shep met eyes, their mouths tight, their hearts ready to race, "Been _where _Dean?" Tom asked.

He looked into Sam's eyes and saw the flicker of assent.

Looking back at their two life long friends, a wry twist of his lips came with a faintly disbelieving shake of the head, "Where it began, where this, these events were set in motion." The warmth cocooned him, "It _swore_ it would be back," his stride grew supple, the motion of his body radiating power and surety, "And we knew it would, but I made a vow as well, that mine would be ready when it did, and they will be, each moment to its time."

"Dean?" Shep breathed, his hand reaching forward instinctively toward the young man who now stood stock still, his eyes almost aglow.

Sam pressed gently down on the older man's hand and shook his head, _I had a feeling something like this was coming._

"Is that you Dean?" he asked.

A gentle smile, both enigmatic and still somehow rakish pulled at the corner of his mouth, _We are._

"We need to know..." Shep pressed.

"You have all you need, but here, time works for you both," he nodded,

His eyes, glowing brightly green with a heart of copper fell to Sam who stood and faced him.

_If you pass out Dean I don't know if I can catch you,_ "Get a chair behind him," he directed.

"Why don't you just tell us NOW instead of forcing us to play this God Damned Game of yours!" Shep rose up stepping between the brothers, his face turning red with fury, "Do you have any idea what you've put these boys through! I don't give a rats ass who the hell you were once upon a time you son of a bitch!..."

"Shep!" Tom barked after sliding a chair behind Dean.

"No goddamnit! I wanna know why this son of a bitch thinks it has a right to just... to just..." he swiped angrily at the sudden wetness from his eyes and stood nose to nose with Dean and subsequently the being echoing from within him, "Why? Why them? Why NOW? Why!" his shaking hands grasped Dean's shirt, clenching the fabric tight in his fists.

Dean's head swiveled around, those eyes meeting Sam's. He held up his casted arm and tilted his head, turning gently from Shep's tormented grip.

_Yeah... me too,_ Sam thought. He moved without a thought into that raised arm and felt himself embraced by love that had dawned with time, a feeling so complete he wasn't sure his merely human heart could withstand the wholeness of it.

"My boy," Dean's mouth sighed a moment before his knees buckled and his body was guided safely down into the chair.

"Uhhnnggh shit..." John's eldest boy groaned leaning forward, his head bending over his knees as blood peppered the carpeting below him, "too...much... chickflicking..." he groaned sliding forward until Shep was almost completely holding him in the chair.

"Dean?"

"Dean!" Shep and Tom called together as Sam ran to the bathroom for a towel then slid to his brother's side pressing the cloth to his sweat dripping waxy face.

"This happened yesterday too... C'mon Dean, just sneeze it out man, just like you did yesterday alright?" he urged, "C'mon Dean say something please..." he looked up between the two elder hunters, "He's not wired for this kind of thing... please don't do this to him anymore," he breathed casting his glance upward.

"Dean?" he breathed.

"Mmm," he grunted.

--

Feeling better than she had all day, Laura returned to her seat at the bar, straightened on the stool and enjoyed the several deep pops that came from her back. _Ahhh that's better,_ she thought, paying no attention to the couple of men who left their stools, one moving toward the back door, and the other toward the front.

The 'clap' of the deadbolt being thrown on each of the doors DID however catch her attention, slowly she scanned the rest of the patrons and the bartender.

There was curious uncertainty in two sets of eyes and all out fear in another set that sat not too far down the bar from her. A quick assessment gave her eight sets of eyes, including the bartenders' glaring at her coldly.

"Well then..." she smiled tightly and slid off the stool while slugging back half the glass of rum, "Gee, would you look at the time?" she chuckled, "It's getting a little past my bedtime, guess I should just be going now..." she pointed to the cash on the bar, "You can keep the change, it was a great burger..."

"Where d'you think you're going?" the man from the front door, looking like some redneck bully from a ZZ Top video grasped her by the hair, pulled her head back and nipped at her ear while his arm wrapped around her chest, pulling her tight against him.

The stuttered pounding of her heart slowed, her breath evened out, and the tremble she'd felt beginning in her limbs steadied as seven men closed a circle around them.

One of the curious sets of eyes moved with their owner toward the back door where the deadbolt was turned and one of the seven lurched.

Flesh against flesh later a body collapsed unconscious to the floor.

"Lock it back up," her holder breathed while his teeth held her ear in his mouth.

"Dude, you really don't wanna be doing this..." she shook her head.

"Oh yeah I do... I don't know how you KNOW, but you're gonna keep your mouth shut bitch...and I'm gonna make sure of it," he hissed.

One of the remaining two unaffected men grasped a beefy, paint speckled man from behind, "Let the lady go fellas... whatever you think this is gonna serve..."

He didn't get to finish his statement. As he fell to the tacky floor the last man at the far side of the bar squeaked in his seat and backed toward the rear wall as all eyes turned to him.

"Kill the queer," the one holding her ordered quietly.

Laura drew a deep breath and focused a point on each of the three men that moved, "Stop!" she pushed and breathed a sigh of relief as their bodies halted in mid step. "Leave him alone."

Behind her the chest of the man holding her began to rumble, his hand closed on her throat and squeezed. As she gagged and gasped for breath, trying to turn from his grip, the others returned to close in on them.

A quick turn and a thrust of her fingers broke her free. In the center of the circle she turned, trying to keep her eyes on all of them at the same time. _Teach me to leave my weapons in the car... son of a bitch!_

From behind her, heavy glass shattered and the bartender fell to the floor, amber and red flowing from a deep laceration in his scalp as the man they'd been directed to kill brandished the jagged neck of a Jack Daniels bottle. He swept his arm in a wide arc toward the nearest man and slid into the circle, his back to Laura's as they turned.

"Do you have any idea what the hell's going on here?" he asked breathing shakily.

"Truth?" she asked.

"Sure why not," he shrugged.

"I think they're possessed... sort of..."

He glanced hastily at her face, the men surrounding them inching closer moment by moment, "You're not joking."

"Nope."

Ignoring the bloodied bartender on the floor and moving as one, the men pounced.

--

Dean rolled over, his eyes struggling to come open and find something they could both focus on at the same time. His whole body felt like King Kong had been practicing the Rumba on him, breathing hurt, moving hurt, _Why does it have to hurt so much?_ he wondered, _You'd think if we're linked it shouldn't hurt so much. Sam I'm sorry I don't know if I can do this._ His head pounded and the world shifted backwards as he turned to look across the room at his little brother, sleeping with his knees in his chest, and he smiled, _Once more Sammy, for you, to end this, I can do it one more time._

In the dark Sam turned, a rod of something hot poking, prodding the center of his back, stealing his breath as it tried to lock his body, twisting in agony. _Dean! Oh God it hurts! Dean..._ his heart pounded and his breath moved like shards of glass in his chest.

A twist of smoke curled up from an image walking widdershins thrice around another motel room and in his chest his heart stopped, his breath held, and his skin crawled. _Son of a Bitch! How could I forget!_ he wondered as his eyes scanned the room and he struggled to push himself to the edge of the bed, _How could I be so stupid! I put us at risk AGAIN! Damnit! Damnit! Alright... Man I'm sorry..._

He groaned, finally able to push himself upright and reached for his satchel and the shank of Holy Wood he'd forgotten finish the seal with.

--

Not too far below the surface of forests' earthen floor, slow joining particles of an ancient being took its opening and felt like smiling.

--

tbc.

please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	11. Chapter 11

Dawn – Chpt 11.

by: sifi.

--

The heavy thump of heavy articles landing on the floor drew John's oldest son out of his sleep. The next thing that registered was fast, hard footfalls and an agitated series of moans in his brother's voice.

His eyes opened, immediately tracking his little brother pacing the room, his good arm raised, his hand fisted into his hair. Sweat poured down his face, his t-shirt almost glistening it was so soaked through.

He forced himself upright as quickly as possible, "Sam? What's the matter?"

"I screwed up Dean," he breathed as his fist clenched tighter and he bit his lip, "I left us vulnerable and I don't know what happened..."

Dean pushed himself to his feet frowning, "Sam you're soaking wet, what happened?" he moved to the bathroom and grabbed a towel then sat his little brother down on the bed.

"I don't know, something went wrong, I forgot to seal the room, it could have found us, I stayed up, had to make sure it was okay y'know?" he looked up as Dean wrapped the towel over his head and started rubbing him dry.

"You been up all night Sam? What's the matter with you man? You need to be careful with yourself! I NEED you to be strong and healthy or you're gonna get killed!" Dean snarled.

Sam felt his jaw drop and his heart thump hard against his ribs as his face crumpled, "Oh no... No no... Oh hell Dean! I'm sorry..." he shook his head then clamped his teeth down on his trembling lower lip, "Oh God... I screwed that up too..." he half collapsed forward, his forehead landing hard on Dean's shoulder, shades of the uncertainties of youth rattling through his mind, reminding him of the moments when he'd been less than expected, when he was certain he'd let his big brother down.

His fathers' voice echoed in the back of his brain, from the depths of his memory, _"I don't have the time Dean, Jim needs help, NOW. You can't do the job AND watch his backside, it'll just get one or the both of you dead. He doesn't have what it takes to survive this life, he's too soft... Look, he'll be fine on his own, but he's not the one you want at your back..."_

"Easy tiger, easy, it's alright..." Dean shook his head and frowned concerned as he pat his little brother on the back, reminded of all the times he knew Sam felt he'd never quite measured up. Mist threatened his eyes as he thought of all the things between them, all the secrets they shared that John had never even known existed; from Sam's first detention for kicking a bully's ass, to the skunking in Arkansas, to the time when Sam had covered Dean's chores for almost a week when Miss McKetridge had beat him so badly for throwing up in class, that he could barely walk. _"Lick it up or pay the price for making a mess..." bitch_. He thought remembering Sam's horrified and completely confused expression when he'd seen the heavy black welts from her pointer-stick crisscrossing over his back.

"No... can't do anything right, screw it all up... did it again..." Sam mumbled.

"Holy crap man, you're practically on fire," Dean hissed pushing his little brother off himself and grasping him by the face, "Sam, listen to me now okay?" he searched for his brothers gaze, for comprehension in those glassy eyes, "Look at me Sam," he instructed in a firm voice and felt relief as they grasped his and held on.

"Blew it... didn't seal the room..." he shook his head.

Dean took a breath and glanced at the table where the shaft of Holy wood sat in a small bit of ash on a plate. He pressed his forehead to his little brothers, his hands on either side of his face, holding him steady, hoping to hold onto his focus for just another moment.

"Yes, yes you did Sam, you sealed the room, and you kept watch, you did good, but it's my turn now okay?" he smiled into his little brothers' hopeful face.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah you did good, but now I want you to change your shirt dude, dry off first though okay?" he lay the towel on the bed and started hiking the shirt up until Sam took over, "I'll be right back..." he moved into the bathroom and tossed all but one of the towels into the sink and ran the cold water over them.

When he turned around Sam wasn't on the bed anymore. For a split second as he leaned out the bathroom door his heart flipped into his throat until he saw the younger man on his knees, mounding the line of rock salt at the door, making sure it was solid before moving to check the window.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered turning the younger man from the window, "C'mon Sam, the lines are fine..." he maneuvered his little brother back to the bed, sat him down and pulled the dripping t-shirt over his head.

Even as he reached for the towel Sam began to shiver, his teeth chattering wildly, his skin pebbled in goose flesh and his hands shaking like an old man.

"D, D, Dean... c,c,cold..." he chattered, his brows furrowed deeply as he clasped the towel around his shoulders and gave in to the need to lay down.

"I know Sam, s'alright," he breathed pulling the covers over the young man, "We'll get you warmed up in no time," grabbing the first aid kit from the table he rooted around till he found the temperature strip then pressed it to his little brother's forehead.

--

"I don't know if we should, or if we should just figure on staying here another day," Dean sighed and shakily returned his cup of coffee to the table before turning back to Sam who lay tossing in the bed.

"Here you go," Tom returned with six zip-lock bags of ice wrapped in towels from their room, "How high was it?" he asked wedging the first bag carefully into the young hunters' right armpit while Dean reached under the covers pressing a bag under each of Sam's knees.

"A hundred and three point four," he scowled and placed the last two bags over a towel laid across his little brother's hips, "I fed him four aspirin before he finally gave out, I don't like this... if his temp doesn't start coming down the next step is a cool bath, and he'll scream bloody murder at that I promise," Dean shook his head and wiped a heavy layer of sweat from his own brow.

"Here y'go Dean, y'can't both get sick," Shep dropped a couple tablets into the elder brothers' hand then pressed the strip to his forehead.

He read the older man's scowl and asked, "How bad is it?"

"Hundred and one, six, could be plenty worse," he grunted.

"Damn."

"Still better 'n it was when we put you to bed last night, but by no means good. This is gonna kill you boys if we're not careful," Tom nodded.

"Do you remember what happened yesterday Dean?" Shep asked.

Slowly John's boy nodded, "Yeah I do. I remember it all Shep."

Green-gold eyes met cornflower blues as he and Tom shared a look, "Do you know how to stop this thing? The marauder and his army?"

Dean winced swallowing down the tablets with a slug of coffee before looking back and forth between them, "I don't know I think maybe...there has to be a way," he looked at Sam and shook his head, "I don't know. He didn't feel like he was afraid, he was confident," he huffed an ironic chuckle and felt despair clutching at his heart as his little brother whimpered beside him, his hands flailing, his body twisting in the sheets as he tried to escape the cold, and the ice bags were pushed away.

"Easy Sam, c'mon now," he tried to soothe as the young man kicked the sheets and blankets to the floor.

"Nuh... stop..." he twisted, tracks of black suture knots over his back, shoulder, and flank where one of the wolves had taken a chunk of him, all of them angry red, hot and straining with his torturous movements.

"Sam c'mon now..." Dean moved to the side of the bed, grasping at the young man as he tried to roll away, tight grunts and wheezing rattling in his chest, "S'okay Sam, it's okay I'm here, you're safe now," he looked up at their friends, "I hate seeing him like this, I'm supposed to take care of him... it's my job, I'm supposed to look after him, keep him healthy and safe... maybe even sometimes help him find something to make him happy for a little while y'know?" he sniffed through the hot buzzing in his head.

"None of this is your fault Dean,"

"It's not your fault," Tom and Shep said together.

"Dean!" Sam barked as his eyes ripped open at the same time his big brother's good arm came over his sweat slicked chest and pushed him back down onto the bed.

"I'm here Sam, I gotcha," he reached for the ice bags and returned them to the pressure points, then drew the blankets over him again.

"Cold Dean," he breathed shakily while moisture spilled from his eyes.

"Gotta get the fever down to somewhere reasonable little brother," Dean explained.

"S'bad?" he asked.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, pretty bad... if we can't get it under control we're gonna hafta put you in the tub dude."

Sam's face crumpled as he shook his head and sniffed, "No... not again please... I'll be good."

"Okay, okay, we'll try okay?" Dean swept his dripping hair back and mopped his forehead again.

"Mmmm," he nodded, "Unnh... no tub... I'll be good..."

"Shhh just rest Sammy... close your eyes and rest..."

John's youngest nodded his head and did as he was told, closing his eyes, trying to rest, trying to forget the fire he'd felt once before, more than half a lifetime ago.

"Again?" Tom asked.

"Yeah," Dean nodded solemnly, "We were up in a cabin in Colorado, not too far from Dan Elkins' place come to think of it... Dad was off hunting something... if we were that close to Elkins it was probably vampires...heh..." he chuckled shaking his head, "Sam was about eleven. We knew he'd been coming down with something for a few days, we figured it was a cold or something, maybe the flu, no big deal y'know?"

They nodded.

"Well sure enough the flu hit, then came the measles."

"Measles?" they questioned.

"Yep," Dean shook his head, "Don't ask me how, we always made sure Sam's vaccinations were up to date, but you know Sam, he can't do anything half assed so when he went down, he went down hard... I don't remember how high his fever spiked, but it scared the crap out of me, I was terrified," he held up his finger as they opened their mouths to ask, "And before you ask, typical Winchester luck, freak mountain storm, dad had the impala, and the phone went out. I mean we were set to hunker in just in case y'know? We had everything we should have needed, if it'd been just the flu we would've been fine, but out pops the measles."

"What'd you do?" Shep asked.

"What could I do? I filled up the tub with luke warm water when the packs wouldn't do the job, stripped the kid down to his tightie whities and put him in the tub," he shook his head, "I never wanna hear him scream like that again, and I know it hurt like a son of a bitch, the steam just kept rolling off his skin...looked like he'd been cooking from the inside," he shuddered a breath and felt his brother's forehead with the back of his hand, "I don't wanna do that to him again."

"Beats the possibility of brain damage Dean," Tom patted his knee.

"If it gets up to a hundred and four he's going back to a hospital," he nodded.

Shep placed the strip to Sam's forehead and watched the color bar slide upward until it stopped.

"Hmm one oh three point one... it's coming down," he smiled shakily.

"Good," Dean nodded, "If we can get it to hold at about one oh two five I won't worry about us hitting the road this afternoon, we can drive through the night, he can sleep," he motioned to Sam. _Not to mention that if he didn't finish the seal until late last night we could be definitely be in some real danger. _

"So soon?"

"That thing can find us if we're in one place too long. For every hour we stay in one place to recuperate, the marauder gets an hour to recover as well. I honestly don't know how or why it hasn't commandeered someone else yet... unless it's biding its time."

"We need to get you boys somewhere safe that's for sure," Shep nodded.

--

"I don't know!" Bobby barked, his anxiety boiling slowly just below the surface, "She's probably out of range of a tower or something... why don't you guys go see if you can home in on her huh?" he challenged the sidhe warrior who pointed to all the others who'd clustered around and were bound to the location until the emissary showed up to perform the last bit of ritual to lock the protective Cone of Power into place.

"I know I know, you can't leave until she gets here..." he threw his hands up in the air and knelt down before the small worried warrior, "Look cell phones go out all the time, I'm sure she'll call, I'm sure there's no reason to be worried..." he looked around at the doubtful faces, "Do you think there's reason to be worried?" he asked.

The looks that passed among the sidhe were easily read, they didn't know. She should have checked in, they all knew it, and given what they were planning for the upcoming weekend the only way they were certain that she wouldn't, was if she couldn't. But they also knew that 'couldn't' could mean a lot of things.

Finally the one called Mustard Seed shrugged, but the concern never left his face as his eyes held onto Bobby's blues.

"It could be anything from car trouble, to cell phone trouble, or even no trouble... it was her idea to get hold of a demon and bring it to show the others... maybe she's on the trail of one..." he rattled off the possibilities to the warrior, "Or maybe..." he started and stopped, "Maybe I oughtta just shut up... When the guys call tonight I'll ask if they've heard anything."

--

Laura looked out at a world skewed sideways, unable to even lift her arm, her fingers crawled across the floor between them, reaching out to try and feel for a pulse as red dripped down her face and into her eye, clouding her vision.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	12. Chapter 12

Dawn – chpt 12.

by: sifi.

--

"How're you feeling Sam?" Dean asked smiling with relief as his little brother tore half a quarter pounder into his mouth with one bite.

"Better... hungry..." he mumbled around the food.

"Man you're eating McDonalds... I KNOW you're hungry. I'm just really glad you're coherent, you were starting to scare me... AGAIN," he smiled elbowing the younger man good naturedly.

"Y'know this is kinda at the perfect angle for long distance driving..." he mused, noting his cast propped up in the open window while his much less puffy fingers held the wheel steady.

"I made sure the nurse got the angle right when she was replacing it the other night," Sam muttered then stuffed the rest of the sandwich into his mouth.

Dean smiled at his little brother, "Really?"

"No," Sam grinned shaking his head.

"Jerk," Dean shook his head.

"Bitch..." Sam fired back.

"Ooooh give a boy some red meat and he's cocky all of a sudden huh?"

Sam nodded, "You think you're gonna be alright to barrel on through or are we gonna stop again before we get there?"

"You're not driving," Dean frowned playfully, "Every time you drive something happens, we get t-boned, or my baby gets shot... or... something..."

"Neither of those was my fault! And it's not like you were in ANY condition to be behind the wheel Mr. pull-over-I'm-gonna-puke..." Sam teased.

"Or you turn into special delivery for a wolf pack," Dean smiled with a cocked eyebrow.

"That's in all likelihood being controlled by some freak ass invader from another dimension..."

"Oooh hey I wonder if we could make a movie about something like that... get rich, get famous, leave all the demon hunting behind... I mean... it's Hollywood right?"

"I thought you just said you wanted to leave the demons behind?" Sam asked.

"Bah Dum Bum...but yeah, you're probably right..." Dean grinned, smacking his little brother lightly.

"I usually am," Sam smiled ripping into the second quarter pounder.

"I think I liked you better half conscious," he smirked, then tapped the notebook on Sam's lap. "What'd Bobby say about finding something to translate this stuff?"

"Mmm he's got a book..."

Dean nodded, "Got a few..."

"Yeah, but the pix didn't come through well enough for him to try and translate anything so..."

"Sooo we have to wait till we get there which if we barrel through will be about three or four in the afternoon and we'll be too wrecked to do anything but sleep," he mused.

"Right... BUT Bobby and Laura could start working on a translation... are you SURE you can't read any of that? I mean not even in your head?"

"Positive, I was looking at it this morning, just looks like a stick-figure orgy to me," he cocked an eyebrow at Sam, "Did she get there?"

"No, the message she left Bobby said she got waylaid. She should be there right around the same time as us... IF we keep going."

"Waylaid for a day? Don't tell me she went out and caught a demon..." Dean shook his head, "Freakin' psycho," he grinned.

Sam shrugged, "Mmm he didn't say, just that she sounded kinda beat and he was glad she wasn't pushing it," he half turned in the seat and looked at his big brother's profile; he'd spent all of his life looking into that face for answers, looking for everything he'd ever needed in those eyes, "Dean, do you think we can beat this thing?" he asked softly.

Dean smiled weakly but as much as he wanted to turn his head and meet the plea in his little brothers' eyes, he couldn't, "Sam, do you remember about a week after Jake opened the gate, when we ran into The Magnificent Seven?"

"Yeah,"

"Before we left Bobby we asked him if he thought we could win this war, and that was even before we KNEW for certain about the marauder and _its_ wants being in the picture remember?"

"Yeah, I remember, and Bobby didn't answer the question... he looked downright scared in fact," Sam nodded.

"Right,"

"So what? You don't wanna say? You don't think we can? What?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head but couldn't help smiling as he glanced at his little brother, a vague hint of _something_ flapping around in his guts, "It's kind of a moot point Sam, I mean think about it, our mission is to stop Ne...the marauder from destroying our universe right?"

Sam nodded.

"We do that, there's still gonna be demons to fight, there's still gonna be an army of igigi out there that we really don't even know how to get rid of..."

"So you're saying 'no' you don't think we can win this..." Sam frowned.

Dean couldn't help the chuckle that rose out of him as he patted his little brother's knee, "No Sam, I'm not saying 'no', what I'm saying, is that I think it's the fight that's more important than an actual win. I mean there IS no such thing as utopia, it's not possible in a world like ours... now maybe if there IS some kind of a peaceful place, some kind of a Heaven... then it would have to be possible _there_ right?" he spocked his eyebrow at Sam and glanced over to make sure the younger man was following him.

"Right..." Sam shrugged, "and since we know there's a hell it stands to reason there's a heaven as well, I mean you can't have one without the other..."

"Yin, Yang and Yahtzee," Dean nodded.

"Dean?" Sam asked.

"Yeah?"

"You scare me sometimes."

"Meh, you're just intimidated by my awesomeness," he smirked, "not that I blame ya," he could feel the grin creeping out as Sam tried to hold back a chuckle.

In moments they were both nearly rolling with laughter as the miles unwound behind them.

--

Laying on his belly deep in the grasses just outside of Bobby's auto yard, Gary stilled, his breathing slowed and his muscles tightened as the choppy sound of that old impala announced the Winchester boys' arrival.

_Now, let's see just what you really got planned for this weekend you demonic little bastard._

He watched the boys move stiffly to the trunk where they picked up their bags as Bobby's front door opened and knee high streak of black and brown with ears like wings seemed to fly down the steps. Four legs scrambled to a sideways halt as a gasping ribcage came to a leaning rest against Sam's shins.

"Well hi there..." Sam smiled and looked up at Bobby who stood grinning on the porch.

Dean closed the trunk and moved to stand beside Sam, his eyes meeting the bright seemingly innocent gaze of the dog.

"Ajax," Bobby said firmly with a short soft whistle, and the young rot practically pranced back to his side, gigantic pink tongue lolling out the side of its smiling mouth, "I can't tell you how glad I am t'see you boys," he shook his head and descended the steps with his pup already in perfect 'heel' position.

"It's good t'see you both," Bobby grasped them, one man to an arm, then frowned as one hand touched each of their cheeks, "You shoulda rested for a while, neither of you's gonna be in any shape for anything if you don't take the time t'get better," he grasped their bags and led them into the house.

At the doorway Sam and Dean stopped, their jaws hanging in wonder.

"What the hell?"

"Bobby... where? How?..." Sam stammered as he slowly stepped into the enormous living room and turned, his eyes brushing over every possible wall that had at one time or another been awaiting the building of bookshelves, that now had them.

"This place is freakin huge!" Dean gazed in wonder then glanced at Sam, "Geek boys' in heaven..." Ajax padded over to the John's eldest, placed his far too huge paws on his thighs and stood up, requiring a ruff behind the ears or at the neck.

"Good boy," Dean muttered grabbing his ruff and shaking it easily while biting back the breath-stealing burning pain the dog's surprisingly gentle touch still managed to cause.

Bobby shrugged, "What can I say, the sidhe figured we'd need more room if we're hosting a hunters' convention this weekend, so they built some shelves. They even organized the books and..." he pointed behind himself to the frighteningly clear dining table, "They found the one you need," he motioned over his shoulder, "You boys want the downstairs room? I'm guessing you're probably not too good with stairs yet if what Shep told me was right," he nodded to Dean.

"That'd be great Bobby, thanks," he sighed and looked up at the re-finished ceiling, complete with a new Key of Solomon.

"You boys hungry?" Bobby called moving directly into the kitchen where he returned with beers.

"What have you got?" Dean asked then motioned to Sam, "This one snarfed 3, count 'em THREE quarter pounders PLUS half of my big mac, two large fries and a coke."

Under the elder man's surprised and questioning look Sam nodded and couldn't help but blush.

Bobby nodded with a wry smile, "Well he did turn into a lot of boy to feed..." he motioned them into the kitchen with him, "Ain't much made... I went and picked up what your girlfriend told me to, and the guys brought in the vegetables..." he half scowled out the window toward the far rear of the yard, "Seems they managed t'find a place to plant a garden..."

Dean chuckled as Sam grabbed a carrot out of the fridge, "What's the matter Bobby? You afraid it's gonna rub off on you and you're gonna turn domestic or something?" he asked, reaching in for a beer. On the counter he grasped the end of one of the half dozen loaves of french bread and ripped a chunk from it.

"Dean... here," Sam pulled a bag off one of the shelves and tossed it to his big brother.

As soon as he opened it the smell of roast beef seemed to hit his stomach directly.

"Was that you or the dog?" Bobby asked noting the look on the animals' face, "Don't you fall for those eyes of his... once you do he'll know he's got you!"

"How does he do with the sidhe?" Sam asked watching Dean close the bread around a few slices of the beef before tossing the deli bag back to him.

"Don't even think it Ajax... I got one pup to feed that's enough," Dean mumbled around a full mouth as the dog let out a mini-bark, "Uh uh, sorry fella," Dean ruffed him under the chin and got a handful of tongue for his efforts. With a sigh he turned his eyes to Sam's easy smile and wiped his hand on his little brothers' jacket, "At least you don't slobber on me," he grinned as Sam grimaced and frowned, "Anymore..." he smirked.

"Actually they get along great... they made a harness for him and had him carting books all over the place on a little sledge..." Bobby shook his head in disbelief, "he seemed to kinda not mind it... crazy mutt..."

"So where are they? I kinda expected to see a few of 'em around..." Dean asked, "They're not holding some kind of grudge against Sam or something are they?

Bobby laughed then checked himself, "No... with what's gonna be needed to seal this place, well most I understand is that until she gets here, they're kinda stuck holding the line... it's powerful stuff guys... I mean the wards that are already here, they're like childs play compared to the energies these fellah's have been gathering together so your girl can do what she needs to do to make this place safe for everyone."

Somewhere in the back of Dean's mind a light switch was flipped, "Hey Bobby... what kind of protection are we talking about here? I mean is it gonna be something like what she did at the Dryad's glade?" he asked.

Sam felt his blood fall to his feet as he met Bobby's eyes quickly, his expression without a doubt, prohibitive.

"I don't know..." Bobby shrugged and sighed, "...what I DO know? It's gonna be big, and it's gonna be powerful."

"How're you getting along with them Bobby? I mean it can't be easy being kind of a refuge for a universe..." Sam smiled gratefully.

"Ach, most of 'em have spread out by now," the older man waved dismissively, "Most of 'em that are still here were the ones that Laura asked to come in the first place. A few more stayed behind, but the majority of them have filtered out by now."

"Where would they go?" Dean asked, "I mean, they're a little too little to even blend in with little people... or are we gonna see an influx of wee people in carnivals?"

Sam closed his eyes and shook his head mildly, "They're a forest and woodland race Dean, and we're in South Dakota... they'll blend in with the local spirits just... fine..." he breathed and cleared his throat in an effort to cover a cough.

As they returned to the living room the look on Bobby's face told them all they really needed to know. He wasn't accustomed to having his life and world upheaved. Since the sidhe had taken up residency in and around his yard they'd kept largely to themselves though they did seem to enjoy sharing their bounty with the man, he often found bunches of fresh veggies on the porch, he figured it was their way of paying rent. The point was that while he didn't like folks messing with his little corner of the world, he _did_ appreciate the help they'd given and the changes that had come, and he wasn't sure how he felt about _that_.

"So... have you heard anything?" Dean asked frowning slightly at his little brother.

"Yeah, Tamara's on her way with Jack," at the boys' curious looks he explained, "Isaac's brother, he joined up with her a few months after Isaac..." he shook his head solemnly. Both boys nodded that he didn't have to clarify, they remembered. "Way I figure it, he joined up with her probably partly out of revenge and I'd guess, partly to try and keep her safe. Tom and Shep are on their way, THEY were sensible and got some rest. Nathan and Ezra had a family emergency but they'll hook up with Tamara and Jack and get the details later, and Kyle was a long shot anyway, but he's not interested in making friends, and if he's not interested, then neither are Toby and Jeff. That's all I've heard from so far," he sighed tipping his beer bottle back while Sam and Dean shared a look that said neither of them had heard of anyone other than Tamara, Tom and Shep.

"And Laura should be here in a couple hours, she said she slept late," he smirked.

Glancing at his little brother Dean cocked his head to the side and asked almost sheepishly, "How'd she sound?"

"Fine," he assured then frowned, "Why?"

Dean didn't get a chance to answer, a surprisingly low rumble sounded as Ajax padded from the bay window, to the front door, into the boys' bedroom where he raised up to look out the window and chuff, before resuming his growl and moving to the kitchen door. The dog alternated whining and growling at the kitchen door before looking back at the living room only to return to the back door, with another whine he retraced his steps back into the living room.

"That's a not happy puppy," Dean scowled meeting Bobbys' blues over the table. He pulled his .9mm from his pocket, motioned to Sam who pulled his gun and motioned to the front door.

"He's been a little edgy the last day or so, could have something to do with the energies being summoned. I'm sure he'll be fine, don't you worry," Bobby winked, "You boys need another beer?" he asked signaling he'd take the back door.

"Yeah... thanks..." Dean nodded toward the room he and Sam were going to be sleeping in.

Ajax followed at his master's heel, a single tight whine the last peep of distress as the three men moved quietly and quickly, each to their destination.

Outside the late afternoon sun laid its warm glow over the house and yard, but nothing stirred.

Curious, Bobby stepped out onto the back porch as Sam stepped onto the front, each man listening intensely for a long moment to the birds and singing insects in the area. Slowly they turned back, closing and locking the screen doors behind themselves.

"Anything?" Dean asked.

They shook their heads.

"Me neither..." he suggested.

"Anything else?" Bobby looked at the dog sitting at his side.

The animal chuffed, then padded off to a pile of blankets in the corner where he curled up comfortably, his eyes watching the three men.

"Dippy mutt," Bobby shook his head and went to the kitchen.

He returned a couple moments later with three fresh beers to find the brothers with their heads together over the book that he'd found that would hopefully help them decipher what Dean had written.

Dean turned his gaze to his little brother, "Oh man... this is effed up right here..."

Beside him Sam sighed and leaned his head into his hand, "It's largely pictographic..."

"These aren't _pictures_ Sam they're _sticks_..." he frowned, "I mean hieroglyphics, THOSE are pictures...you got a bug, you got the eagle headed guy, Horus I think,... anyway, then you got Anubis, the guy with the Jackal's head... all IDENTIFIABLE pictures."

The young Winchester turned his head slightly, his eyebrow raised as if he was a little impressed.

"What?" Dean asked, "Dude The Mummy? The Book of the Dead, the Book of Ra... Rachel Weiss in a black almost see through harem outfit... mmm," he smiled dreamily, "who says movies can't be educational?"

Beside him, Sam's expression changed, caught between a smirk and a question, so the elder Winchester pre-empted him, "No I can't read hieroglyphics either...but at least they're _pictures._"

Sam nodded, "Okay yeah, but that's WAY after Babylon and Akkadia I mean thousands of years Dean... This," he tapped the notebook, "this is the FIRST written language... and I get what you're saying but these? Their configuration's are supposed to represent kinda universal things, I don't know about concepts entirely but concrete things..." he pointed to the example in the books Foreword, a layer of lines presented horizontally, staggered either left to right in their placement, that was said to represent the word 'head'. "See..." his breath caught in his throat as he started to cough, tried to hold it back for a long moment before his chest spasmed and he doubled over in a fit that sounded like a kennel of dogs barking at once.

"Alright professor," Dean said softly once Sam finished and sat back with his eyes closed, trying to calm his breathing and visibly fighting another round of coughing.

"That's enough for a while," he ushered a scarily pliant Sam to his feet, walked him to the bedroom and closed the blinds while the young man stretched out on the bed, his feet hanging over the edge for a split second before his knees coiled into his chest and he wrapped himself in a cocoon of blanket with his teeth chattering.

"Sorry Dean... just give me a couple hours okay?"

"Hold on a sec Sam," Dean dug into his bag for the aspirin then shook out four of 'em, "Here, take these."

Sam did as instructed, swallowing them down with a swig of beer before turning back onto his left side and seeming to fade out almost instantly.

"That's not good," Bobby said softly as Dean returned to the table, "and you're not exactly in top form either. I'm gonna hafta talk to those two muttonheads when they get here, letting you boys..."

"They didn't LET us do anything Bobby, Tom 'n Shep have been... if they hadn't been with us over the last few days... we'd probably be in a LOT worse shape," Dean looked at their friend and nodded solemnly, "I'm worried about him."

"Yeah," the elder man nodded, "How long's he had the cough?"

"Noticed the wheezing last night..." he frowned, his brows furrowing, "Or maybe it was the night before... I don't know man time isn't exactly being linear these days."

Bobby nodded his understanding, "You boys on antibiotics?"

"Yep, ain't missed a dose, got eleven days left..."

"You know you had that young man scared out of his mind last weekend Dean, and taking a good look at you, he was right to be wasn't he?" the elder man asked. _Was it really only a week ago? You boys gotta quit scarin' this old man..._

Something in the question, in the comfort of being in their old friend's house; of knowing they were, in this moment as safe as they could get, clawed through Dean's defenses letting loose flashes of images, blonde, blood, and spinning gray metal that had little to do with the marauder or their new quest.

His eyes closed and winced even as he brought the beer bottle up, his hand quaking so the glass clinked hard against his teeth as he drew a trembling breath, "Yeah," he choked then busied himself with draining the bottle.

Bobby was no stranger to the young Winchester and his defenses. _Bitch really hurt him._

"Listen, unless you feel like trying to decipher that stuff without your trusty sidekick, why don't you come out to the shed with me, help me get it sealed up so if anyone shows up with a demon in tow we have a place for Laura's demonstration... one that ISN'T going to risk the foundation of my home..." he half smiled, _Maybe get you to work some of that pain out... course would be nice if you'd learn to talk it out... but that ain't the Winchester way now is it?_

"Sure," Dean smiled, glad to have something to take his mind off the suddenly far too painful memories. _Man, it's like they were laying in wait... I just gotta stay busy is all._

Dean slid into the bedroom and dug into his bag, "Hey Sam... I'm gonna be out in the shed with Bobby... you gonna be okay?" he asked.

"Mmm," he grunted.

"Alright," Dean smiled re-tucking the blanket around his brother, "You need us just holler," he admonished then joined Bobby back in the kitchen.

At the fridge, the senior hunter grabbed a six pack and looked down at Ajax.

"You, go lay down with Sam," he nodded and watched the young dog make a bee line for the guest room. A second later when the bedsprings squeaked he smiled and motioned Dean to follow him outside.

"How old is he?" Dean asked, "About seven months?"

"Almost exactly," Bobby smiled.

"He's better trained than Rumsfeld was, no offense t'the poor guy."

"None taken, I just got him a little younger than Rummy, and I can't prove it but it wouldn't surprise me if the sidhe have something to do with how quick this one seems to pick up commands," he shook his head, "Still, I miss that old cuss of a dog," he shook his head.

"I bet, but there's no better way for a dog to go out than trying to protect his master," Dean tried to console, "The only thing that could be better would be getting our hands on Meg and letting those igigi go at her," he sneered.

"They really eat demons huh?" Bobby asked.

As the two men headed toward the three walled, tin roofed structure Bobby called his 'shed', Gary Nelson crept stealthily between the rows of vehicles, his clear brown eyes darting between the men and the house, _Tell me you're smarter than folks've been saying Singer, tell me you got that little bastard sealed up in there...gonna hafta draw the dog out... I hate killing animals._ Slowly, making sure to move when he was certain neither Singer or the elder Winchester was looking, he crept forward, dodging from car to car.

At his last stop before the open rear yard he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small hard case. He pulled one of the two syringes out, putting it into his shirt pocket while he slid the case back into his inner jacket pocket. He slipped the jacket off and adjusted his grip.

He watched for a moment as Bobby and Dean worked to clear away an open area in the shed, and at that perfect moment, when they both had their backs turned, he dashed across the yard to the back door and slid into the kitchen.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.

A/N – Ajax was named by Catbeist... and as such... I think his almost constantly happy expression and lolling pink tongue... well... honestly? I think she gave that to him. Thanks Beloved one...

It's also occurred to me that this is longer than most of my fics in the past have been... if anyone needs a rest or just really wants a DAwn-Hiatus... please let me know... there's some chapters I can sit on for a while if y['all need the break. :D

I'm just sayin cause really I love hearing from every single one of you... you make the effort so very worthwhile... and you give me such joy... helping me find the joy in the building of the story... that if it's too much... please tell me...

Thanks so much...

just me.


	13. Chapter 13

Dawn – chpt 13.

by: sifi

--

Stepping carefully he held the jacket at the ready as the sound of the dog jumping down to the floor and padding out into the hallway came to his ears. He could hear the low rumble of the young canine's growl as he moved through the kitchen, wondering when it would pounce on him.

He took another step and the growl grew louder. He wondered why he hadn't shown himself yet, what was holding the pup back? He stepped forward again, and again; now almost at the threshold between the kitchen and the living room. He peered ahead cautiously and froze as a weary voice sounded from up ahead and on the right.

"Easy Ajax... c'mon boy, s'okay..."

The dog yipped but the claws padded back into the room and he crept forward again. To the left lay the open living room, culminating in the bay window at the far end, and the front door on the right. To the far right would be the stairs, and on this level directly ahead and on his right was one of several bedrooms in the house. Once he stepped into the living room, behind him on the right, would be the downstairs bathroom. He'd carefully cased the place over the last twenty four hours since his arrival; and though he'd heard Bobby talking, both over the phone, as well as to the dog, he'd also heard him, through his electronic ear, talking to what he suspected the older man thought were his 'sidhe' guests. _Damned shame Singer... you used to be one of the ones we could count on,_ he thought knowing full well Bobby hadn't had a single visitor until those boys showed up today.

A quick glance at the partly open bathroom door gave him confidence to slide to the wall, pressing his back against it as he neared the bedroom door, his heart pounding in his chest, his breath hot in his throat. He closed his eyes and took a breath, releasing it slowly, his eyes moving to the ceiling where he frowned curiously noting the key of Solomon painted there. He held his breath and dared a glance through the crack between the door and the jamb. The dog was curled at the foot of the bed, the boy lay on his side, wrapped tightly from neck to toe in the blankets. Even from this vantage he could see the fever flush on his cheeks, and he wasn't sure but he thought he could hear a faint wheezing coming from him as well. Again, Gary Nelson frowned as he wrapped his jacket around his right arm, knowing the dog would strike from his position, which meant he had to use his left hand to inject the boy before he could haul his sick cookies out of the bed and put up a fight. He'd have to move very fast.

Taking another breath to steady himself he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the syringe, holding it by the screw on safety cap in his teeth, with a simple twist of his fingers he'd have it at the ready to stick into the young man.

Another glance through the crack, the shorthairs of his neck stood on end and as he turned in to the room; obtaining his position in three quick long strides, he knew something was wrong. The dog didn't move but something under the blankets did, a metallic sound he knew far too well followed immediately by the deafening blast of a sawed off shotgun firing in tight quarters. Pain hit him in dozens of places between his neck, chest, and belly, in his mouth the syringe no longer existed, though whether he'd dropped it or it'd been hit by the blast he didn't know.

He could feel his eyes growing huge as he nearly flew backward against the wall, sliding down to the floor, unconscious, his last vision that of John's youngest sitting up on the edge of the bed, soaked in sweat and scrubbing his face carefully with his right arm while his left held the gun, its black vacuous barrel pointed right at his head.

In the shed with the sound of the blast going off in the direction of the house, Dean dropped his end of a work bench they were moving and tore as fast as his tortured legs could carry him.

"Sammy!"

Luckily Bobby too had dropped his end of the bench, and he also took off toward the house, racing ahead of the older brother, both men pulling their guns as they covered the distance as quickly as possible.

At the back steps Bobby skidded to a halt, opened the door and slid into the room with barely enough time to keep the half panicked Winchester from charging headlong possibly to his own death.

"Get some rope," Sam grunted listlessly from the bedroom.

It was Dean's signal to push past their old friend.

"Sam!" he stopped at the door, taking in the sight of his little brother sitting on the bed with the shotgun in hand, "You alright?"

Sam nodded, "He had a syringe of something," he watched as Bobby stood stunned and staring in the doorway.

"Did he get you with it?"

Sam shook his head, "Just be careful, I don't know where it went."

"He someone to you Bobby?" Dean asked.

"Name's Gary Nelson, he's one of the hunters I invited... what the hell happened Sam?" he moved into the room and began binding the man while Sam shrugged and told them what he knew, which in fact was very little.

"Wanna toss him into the key? See if he's possessed?" Dean suggested.

"Definitely," Bobby nodded and dragged him out into the hall once he was done tying him up.

"Ajax did good..." Sam muttered smiling tiredly between Dean and Bobby, "Hand signals over verbal when both are given, even better than Rummy," he reached over and rubbed the dog's head then motioned him that the stay command was done. The pup scrambled off the bed and growled at the man his master had dragged into the middle of the floor.

"Watch him Ajax," Bobby commanded and indicated, then stroked the dog's head as that giant pink tongue flipped up against his hand, "Good boy."

--

Mercy Abbott pulled in beside the Impala and smiled hugely, her white teeth shining while her heart fluttered just a little, _Silly girl..._ she chided herself checking her make-up and swiping her lips with a stroke of tinted balm. _Dean..._ she breathed deep and reminded herself of his scent, the memory of it had never left her.

Swinging her overnight bag over her shoulder, she strode up to her Uncle Bobby's front door with just a little more swing in her hips than was normally there, rapped twice, and entered.

"Lemme look at you girl... aww you're sight for these sore old eyes," Bobby grinned wrapping his niece into his arms.

"Hey uncle Bobby," she sighed squeezing him tightly and taking in the almost foreign look to his living room, from the unconscious man tied up on the floor to the shelves of books rather than piles. She quickly grasped him by the shoulders and held him away from her, her expression stern, "Who are you and what've you done with my uncle?"

At his momentarily puzzled expression she broke into laughter, "Is that Gary in the key?" she asked.

"Yeah, he tried to attack Sam," Bobby nodded.

Mercy rolled her head on her shoulders, and scowled, "Is he possessed or did he just buy into all the bullshit floating around out there about the guys?"

"If he's not possessed then he's a bigger idjit than I ever took him for," Bobby nodded.

"Hey! I know that voice..." Dean's voice carried his smile from the kitchen as he and Sam came shambling into the living room.

"Holy crap! You guys look like hell!" She pecked Bobby's cheek then moved into the room and stood before Dean. She cast a quick glance and a smile over the older hunter's shoulder, "Hey Sam," she greeted then turned her eyes back to Dean's, her hands on his chest, "Hey Dean," she sighed then raised up onto her toes and pressed her mouth to his.

"Mercy," he nodded smiling gently, "Good to see you... you look fantastic," he gently pushed her back.

"What happened to you guys?" she asked.

"Ran into a bit of trouble," Sam answered tightly, taking the bag from her hand, "I'll put this in your room upstairs," he cocked his eyebrow at his big brother and fought against the frown that wanted to come out. _I wish we'd known she was coming... course we shoulda figured he'd ask her to come... _

From across the room Bobby scowled at Dean who shot him a partly questioning look, then covered it quickly with a slightly stiff smile as the woman turned her warm hazel eyes back to his luminous green ones.

"Alright I get it... no screwing around with the walking wounded..." she smiled. Her eyes fell to the dining table where it looked like all three of them had been working, then to the corner where Ajax awaited his signal to come meet the new arrival.

"What're you guys working on?" she asked moving to the paperwork and the book, "Cuneiform?" she questioned, "Wow now that's what I call 'old school' not to mention a little heady don't you think?" then picked up the notebook with the writing on it and frowned, "What's this? Something Sam found?" she asked.

"Something like that," Sam answered easily as she tossed the notebook back onto the table.

"What is it?" she asked making a quick run to the kitchen where she helped herself to a beer before returning to the group.

"Well we're not exactly sure, but we think it has something to do with part of what we're going over this weekend," Dean explained.

"Which is what exactly?" she asked, turning and wrapping her arm around his waist, her fingers running over an awful lot of texture beneath his t-shirt, "I mean Bobby was more than just a little cryptic over the phone, new players in town, asking if I'd noticed anything strange during any exorcisms or anything..." she frowned, stepped back and took hold of the bottom of his shirt, "What the hell's going on under there?" she asked starting to lift it up.

"Hey... hey... whoa..." Dean turned out of her reach.

"Alright, alright... geez, s'not like I haven't seen it before... how many stitches you got going on under there anyway?" she asked.

"Enough," he nodded stiffly, his mouth twitching up in an awkward sort of smile.

"Alright," she nodded then tapped her bottle to each of those of the men, "It really IS great to see you all again, the worst part is being out there alone y'know?"

"Well, before we go into why Bobby called everyone here this weekend, we're waiting for someone else to get here," Sam said softly.

"Anyone I know?" she asked grabbing a handful of nuts from a bowl that had been hidden beneath the books' cover.

"Her name's Laura, she' a hunter," Dean said.

Mercy shook her head, "Hmm, don't know her," Mercy smiled, "So what's she bringing to the party?" she asked.

Smirking comfortably Dean's attention was diverted to the window as was everyone elses' when tires chewed gravel up the driveway.

"Ahhh the muttonheads..." Bobby smirked then met eyes with Ajax, "S'okay," he nodded before the dog's head went back down onto his paws for a second before he flipped onto his side and finally rolled onto his back.

--

THE NIGHT BEFORE LAST; The Twilight Bar and Grill, Fort Dodge Iowa.

The tendrils of its consciousness snaked up through the earth, gliding into the minds and hearts of the men surrounding the emissary with ease. The same thing that made it easy to reach inside them and manipulate their weaknesses somehow had managed to cut hers off from it. But it could and would, still have its way. It knew her now, it knew how to gut and fillet her strengths leaving them tattered and useless no matter how different from the rest of the humans she may be.

It whispered each man's insecurities, guilts and anguishes deep into their blood one by one, its energy filling them up, lighting their self loathing afire, assuring each of them that this woman somehow KNEW whatever it was they each could not face.

Seven hundred and fifty miles away, the bulk of the body it had been using began to change. Atoms changed, drawing on the material around it to alter their weight and composition, casting off electrons, adding protons, using what each one could as the memory of what it once had been came seeping back to this world, and as it did so while slowly, drawing on the passive and active life forces it was in touch with including those circling the emissary, it began to remember what _real _power felt like.

Sheltered by distance it played carelessly with its toys, abusing them, laughing as it drank of their lives from the inside while the emissary either battered or _was_ battered by them on the outside. It felt each human _want _to stop as she tried to ply her gifts against its will, the conflict tearing each of them apart in mind. If it had decided that any of its toys should survive, what would have remained would be a tissue paper husk where other worldly nightmares roamed and railed with maddening impotence against captivity.

It looked out from one of its puppets eyes at a world that lay sideways. Bodies strewn across the floor and yet somehow the emissary remained, breathing hard and on her knees before this dying human, covered in blood and sweat it watched her waver. It watched _her_ watch as the bodies, all but the last living man who'd stood beside her, began to dry, the skin of each one turning crisp, drawing in on itself as every useable part of the being was drawn out. It watched the female comprehend what it was doing and collapse, exhausted, wounded, and helpless to stop any of it.

_Perfect..._ it thought, sending portions of that energy back, literally blasting it outward, particles of energy forced so quickly, so tightly packed that lines of fuel were helpless against it. Somewhere in the back of the building something exploded, and miles away a strange rumbling shook the forest floor as it laughed.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thank You.

sifi.


	14. Chapter 14

Dawn – chpt 14.

By: sifi.

--

THE NIGHT BEFORE LAST... The Twilight Bar and Grill in Fort Dodge Iowa...

She reached her hand out, laying her fingertips on the man's throat, feeling for a pulse while red ran into her eyes and a voice she knew far too well rattled on madly in the back of her head, _They're so pretty when they're colored in aren't they sis? They're so much more vibrant now... remember I had..._ "Shhhhzzhuddup... ooo're not 'ere..." she swept her tongue through her mouth and spat a golf ball sized glut of blood onto the floor. "Hey?" she shoved at the man's head as a strange sensation seemed to crawl into her.

Heat, brought as if by some pipeline all its own almost seemed as if it was burrowing through the floor, coming straight at her in fact, _Sis... you may not wanna hear from me, but unless you wanna wind up a charcoal briquette, I suggest you shag your worthless ass out this hole. _

She shook her head and fought the chuckle, all the decades, all the lifetimes she'd managed to stave off the insanity that plagued her brother life after life after life, and now that she'd won his freedom, she feared falling to the same fate. _I could just lay here and if the joint goes up, just breathe in the smoke till it kills me... 'c'mon! insanity's not so bad it's even kinda liberating... if you just learn to let go and roll with the punches...' _

"Son of a bitch..." she pushed herself to all fours still feeling that heat almost as if it was attached to her, seeping into her somehow, drawing on something inside. "Alright," she grunted finally on her knees as she slapped the man's cheeks trying to rouse him.

Around them lay five bodies, all of whom she knew for a fact were dead. Two had escaped apparently, and the other three, she figured she'd been wrong about. None of the men who'd attacked them were possessed, she knew that now, at least not in the traditional way, but they certainly had been used.

_I don't have time for this, I have to get that moon down and the cone up,_ her breath caught in her throat as tears of desperation and pain filmed her eyes. There wasn't a part of her body that didn't hurt. She'd been laying in a puddle of blood that could only be her own, _Musta torn some of Shep's handiwork... _and her left hand with all those sausage fingers that had only been dislocated by the blonde haired bitch that had tortured both her and Dean, were hugely puffy again, and she was fairly certain, mostly broken now.

The 'whuff' and crackle that presaged an almost deafening explosion from the kitchen, sent her sprawling over the one man who'd tried to help her.

"Son of a bitch," she forced her pains to the side and grasped the guy's collar with her good hand making a bee-line for the front door as the two lanterns, one on either side exploded, spewing glass straight at her as the cords erupted into blue flames that quickly bit into the old dry wood walls.

Behind them, blocking the way to the back door bright yellow flames pawed out from the kitchen, scratching at the walls opposite it. _That's not an option..._ she thought looking down at the man who it seemed was starting to rouse in her grip.

She knelt down, grinding her teeth against the pain and shook him, "Wake up! The place is on fire we have to get out of here!"

_Thank God for the human response to fire! _His eyes popped open and quickly took in the impending doom.

"Panic later... on your feet now!" she ordered grasping him by the shirtfront and pulling him to his feet. Her right arm wrapped around his waist and she pulled him toward the front door where the flames were still thin enough to see through.

"What happened?" he shouted above the rising rush of noise and coughed as the air started to become dangerously hot.

She rammed her shoulder at the door and bounced back into the room, "Damnit!"

Draping her good hand with her sleeve she reached for the deadbolt and stared disbelieving as it spun uselessly on its axis.

Fury flared, deadening her pain as she turned without thought and spun into a back kick that finally opened the door. _Oh that's not right..._ a heavy feeling hit her belly as a crack reverberated through her skeleton. A second later, when she set her foot down the ankle gave out.

"I gotcha," he grabbed her firmly and dragged her out into the refreshing and moist night air.

In the parking lot they stood stunned as the bar erupted into flames behind them. Not a single soul was nearby, no sirens could be heard, no other cars, no gawkers, nothing.

"Thank God..." she pressed the remote and opened her car doors at the same time he did his own car.

"I'm driving," she said.

He looked at her incredulous, "You aren't in any shape to drive sweetheart... you look in a mirror lately?"

She shook her head and sighed, "Get to a hospital and have yourself checked out, I have somewhere to be," she lowered herself into her car and started the engine watching the man try for a moment to think of an argument before turning back toward his car.

As she backed out of the parking spot she lowered the window, "Sit in your car for a while, make sure you don't go into shock... better yet, call 911 and wait for the paramedics," she suggested then rolled the window up. She got halfway to the road before she swung her car backward beside the man's and rolled down her window again.

"You saved my life," she nodded meeting his eyes, "Thank you," and drove away before he could gather his wits enough to ask questions she couldn't answer.

--

PRESENT...

Between the ringing in her head and the buzzing she wasn't sure which was worse once consciousness returned. Warmth dripped down her face and she knew she'd opened the scalp wound from the bar.

"Uh... shhhh...t..." she lifted her head fully off the steering wheel and looked up at the arch that delineated Bobby's driveway. Just a little ways ahead through a grouping of trees she could see the Impala, and two other cars parked near the house.

_What the hell?_ she thought remembering the sputtering of her cars' engine as she turned onto the side road that led to Singer's Auto Salvage, and then blinding white pain as her head bounced off the steering wheel as if she'd run into something, _So much for airbags... Please don't tell me... _she shook her head, pushing the door open and stumbling out, her cantaloupe sized ankle wrenched under her weight sending her to the ground one more time where sharp quartz stones bit into her palms sending shockwaves of lightning up her left arm. _Please tell me you just clunked out baby... please..._ she thought with limited coherence, not really certain why she was wishing for such a thing but knowing just the same it was terribly important.

'_Upsadaisy sis... c'mon now you're almost there... let us in,' _Morgan's voice taunted, _'little pigs little pigs let us in... we got a surpriiiiiiise for you...' _it sing-songed.

"Noh," she shook her head, forcing herself to her feet when her knees proved too sensitive to tolerate the sharp rocks.

Taking care to lean hard on the car, she hobbled to the front bumper, sliding along the fender to the nose. With a deep breath she closed her eyes and slid her hand forward then watched her fingers bend faintly back against the barrier.

A gasp tore free first, unleashing behind it silent sobs. Water washed down her face and her whole body gave up trying to keep her on her feet.

Leaning against the heat of the driver's side tire with her knees to her chest, the line of stitches down her torso pulling and pinching, she curled her right arm over her knees, laid her head on her forearm and cried, _It's too late... I failed. _

--

"So you all are trying to tell me that it's not bad enough we got an army of _Hell's_ demons unleashed onto the world, but we got an army of demons unleashed from an entirely different _universe_ to go up against as well?" Mercy snarled looking at all five men, one by one, unsure whether to be furious or laugh at their insanity.

"Pretty much," Bobby nodded.

"And you KNEW about this and didn't think it was important to tell anyone about this little detail?" her voice was hard and angry, accusing each of them.

"Now Mercy..." Bobby started.

"Oh no! You don't 'Now Mercy' me!... of ALL the damned hunters out there! Of ALL the handful of us sick unfortunate deluded wannabe martyrs... ME! You don't tell!? Why?" she demanded.

"Because we didn't have enough information to answer any of the questions we knew were gonna come," Sam half shrugged.

"That's not good enough!" she yelled, "Do you have any idea how this is gonna look to what few of us even have enough faith to come here this weekend? To run the risk of being caught in the same house as YOU! With what's been said about you for the last two years Sam... I tried, I tried so hard to tell people, the few hunters that would listen, or even pretend to listen that, 'no it's not his fault, he's a pawn, we don't know the whole story, I've known the kid all my life...' and now you tell me you've been sitting on this for over a YEAR! Letting these ig..its run riot all over our plane of existence feeding off the human race! What the hell kind of a reaction did you expect!" she screamed furiously at the young hunter.

"Mercy, please... you have to understand..." Tom tried to reason.

"What Tom?! What is it that I have to understand? Everyone that we know has been sitting stunned wondering what the hell's been going on when demonic behavior starts to change, when THEY start whispering about a war coming... we thought we were already AT war!"

"We ARE!" Dean's voice boomed through the room as he stood up to face the woman, "The only difference is that there's one more front than we thought, and if you were half the hunter I've always thought you were you'd sit down, shut the hell up and understand that if we'd shared what little we _have_ known for the last year that none of it would have made a damned bit of difference, quite possibly except to get MORE of us killed!"

They stood glaring into each others' eyes, each hunter calming their breathing, the battle of wills charging the atmosphere in the room.

"You really think I'm a good hunter?" she asked finally.

"Among the best I know," he nodded glancing around the table, purposefully not bothering to look at Gary Nelson who was now wide awake, tied to a chair in the center of the Key, with a wad of duct tape over his mouth. When he'd come around, the whole time they'd splashed him with holy water and performed a futile exorcism his mouth hadn't stopped spewing the trash he'd heard about Sam. Finally Dean had had enough and simply sealed the orifice shut stating, 'we'll figure out what to do with you later.'

"You ready to put that temper on a shelf for a while?" he asked motioning to her chair.

"You are so lucky I got a soft spot for underdogs," she muttered scowling but sat.

Dean smiled as the world seemed to tilt beneath him, his hand grasping the chair back hard as he gasped and ducked his head.

"Dean?" Sam asked.

"Be right back..." he grunted, moving unsteadily around the chairs toward the front door.

"Dean what is it?" Sam asked following closely though the man only shook his head.

Several chairs scraped the wood floor as the others rose, "No... stay here..." he held up his gun, "You'll know if we need you," then stuck it into the back of his pants and looked at his brother. Sam nodded that he too was armed.

"Where are they going?" Mercy asked watching with the guys as they crossed the front yard and moved toward the access road.

Shep shook his head as they stood at the window waiting, "Think something's up with the sidhe?" he asked glancing at Bobby.

"Don't think so, Ajax'd probably let us know... he likes 'em," he smiled then glanced at the dog who was looking at him expectantly. "Alright let's go," he said.

The dog leaped to his feet as the group turned, "Not you guys, if there's something lurking out there," he nodded at the dog, "He should be able to sense it."

Amidst grumbles the other agreed to stay behind while their host and his dog followed the Winchesters.

--

"Laura?" Dean half jogged to the end of the drive with Sam beside him.

She sat with her knees in her chest, leaning against the driver's front tire, head on her forearm.

"Hey? Laura what's wrong?" he asked lowering himself unsteadily to a crouch before her.

"Would you start it?" she asked, elbowing the car door.

"What? She clunk out on you?" he asked wanting to smile but sensing there was something more.

With her forehead still on her arm she nodded.

Dean motioned to Sam who got into the drivers' seat and started her up. "Go park it Sam I'll take a look under the hood later..." Dean nodded as she scooted forward, crossing her legs now and leaning into her good hand shaking her head and trying hard not to sob.

"Hey, talk to me," Dean frowned fingering her head up out of her hand and wincing at the few new bruises and scratches he saw, "What happened?" he leaned back and took an inventory noting the pulsing gash at her scalp, her tortured left hand and cantaloupe ankle.

She shook her head and took a shaky breath as Sam's shuffling lope brought him back with Bobby and Ajax in tow.

One look told them both she'd found some serious mischief in the last couple days as Sam crouched on her other side.

"You just can't help finding trouble can you?" he smiled gently, sliding his good arm under her left while Dean took her right with his. With a nod they lifted her to her feet, Sam wrapping his arm around her waist so she could lean on him.

"C'mon let's get you inside and you can tell us about it," he smiled as Bobby came forward to grab her around the other side.

A whine rolled from the dog as she put her right hand down for him to smell wondering what his reaction would be. They watched as his tail wagged and he licked her hand but continued to whine. As the boys took a step forward the dog barked and she pulled back.

"It ain't gonna happen guys," she grunted looked at the three men as if through water, "It's too late, I didn't get here fast enough and now it's too deep, too strong... I blew it."

"What're you talking about? What's too late?" Dean asked looking between her, his little brother and Bobby. All of them shared the same tummy shuddering feeling but none of them wanting to believe it.

"I can't cross the wards... part of it's inside me."

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks,

sifi.

--

A/N... sorry about putting this up early, but I"m contemplating an extra post during the week... if anyone wants a Tues and Friday post as well as tonight's please just let me know... even if you don't say anything y'might still get it. Either way, to all who have been so wonderfully encouraging and supportive... I don't have the words to thank you enough. For your generous time, your lovely reviews, and your many many kindnesses. Thank You so much!

sifi


	15. Chapter 15

Dawn – chpt 15

by: sifi

--

Sam and Bobby groaned, Dean shook his head, his eyes widening, his mouth bending in an uneasy smirk, "Nuh... No..."

"I'll go get the book, you guys get her back toward the shed," Bobby frowned turning back toward the house.

"Yeah," she nodded wiping her face dry with the sleeves of her jacket, "But that's not the worst part," a fresh fall of water ran down her face as she looked pleadingly at each of the men, "Morgan..." she sniffed shaking visibly, a nearly hysterical laugh bubbled into her hand.

"Morgan?" Dean frowned.

"You're brother Morgan?" Sam asked turning his frown to Dean.

She nodded but couldn't bring herself to look at either of the men, "He won't shut up..." she tried to explain through clenched teeth. "He keeps saying things... he knows things, he always did, but..." she shook her head, her right hand balled into a fist that pressed against her forehead, "...they were so pretty... all colored red... and sticky... and I saw the eye, he left ONE of them, and it was beautiful against the red..."

She took a shaky breath and looked sidelong at Sam, "How did YOU get in?" she asked pressing her hand to his chest, "I can feel it... it touched you... but did it get inside?" Looking up into his eyes, confusion and curiosity now the top layer of her expression she grabbed his chin and ground her teeth while forcing the muscles of her left hand to work, to hold his bearded face steady for a moment, "Is it in there Sam? Did it get in you?"

"What's she talkin' about Sam?" Dean asked feeling his belly starting to go heavy and sparkly with fear, _is THAT why you haven't been able to shake this fever dude? Are you fighting something besides blood poisoning?_

Something changed deep in her eyes as she moved Sam's head, returning his gaze back to hers, "You _do_ know what you may have to do... don't you?"

He cracked a tiny smile and shook his head, "It's gonna be okay," he nodded then turned his attention back to Dean.

"Sam?" the elder hunter questioned expectantly.

The younger Winchester shook his head, his eyes glued to hers as his heart pounded and parts of the nightmares that had tried to wind themselves through him seemed to make a little more sense now, "I don't know, I don't think so..." he shrugged and seemed to contemplate for a moment, "but maybe, maybe it's been tryin'..." he turned with a sad smile to Dean, "I thought it was just dreams Dean... you know, fever stuff..."

She turned her hand against his cheek, "Mmm burning up..." then cast her eyes down again and huffed a near chuckle, "... almost burned up... shoulda just stayed and breathed it in... mm'already useless, nuthin left..." she sighed as resistance seemed to leech from her muscles and Sam felt himself holding her more tightly.

Dean frowned at his brother and grasped Laura's chin, "Once we get her settled inside you're gonna tell me about these damned dreams Sam... and I'm not talking about the visions."

Then he turned his attention to the obviously exhausted woman in his brother's arms, "No no, c'mon now you gotta fight it Laura, you gotta try and push this thing out of you okay? Morgan's dead... he's free, you gave him that, whatever you're hearing it's not him..."

"She's gonna go down Dean..." he tried to adjust his grip as his big brother grabbed her too, helping to hold her up.

"Shhhh... shh shh shhhh..." her head fell forward and were it not for the boys, she would have fallen on her face, "...had to bring it with so they would come, I had to keep it inside..."

"What?" Dean asked not wanting to believe he'd heard her right.

"The bloodhounds are coming... they needed the taste..." she half smiled and looked up at the sky.

Sam followed her gaze expecting to see the darting dark gray igigi coalesce into a swarm and start to roll toward them, but strangely enough, he realized they'd cleared the area. There wasn't a gray one to be seen.

"Anything Sam?" Dean asked.

The young hunter frowned for a second before his expression opened up and seemed to fill with possibility, "I uh... yeah... I'm not... I think so..." he squinted into the distance just above the tree line where the air seemed to shimmer. At first it was almost imperceptible, but once he reminded himself of what he'd seen so long ago he couldn't help but begin to foster a little bit of hope.

"Laura... are those? They _are_ right?" he asked pointing at what Dean could only see as blue skies.

Bobby and Ajax jogged up to them with the rites of Exorcism in his hand and looked over his shoulder following Sam's finger out into the open skies.

"S'goin' on?" he asked.

Sam's teeth clenched as he started to put some pieces together, "You did this on PURPOSE!?" he demanded looking between Bobby and Dean, then back at the silver and gold columns that were approaching.

"What? What'd she do?" Dean asked, then held her head up, "What did you do!?"

"The igigi aren't only the dark ones that feed on us, and demons... there's other ones, in a way they're like people Dean... what we see, Laura and me... is kinda the essence of the being... if it's evil and malicious it's gray and mottled and twisted...but there are these golden ones... and silver...and copper..." he tried to get his grip back as the woman went lax, nearly folding in half over his arm.

"Alright, alright put her down Sam..." Dean directed.

"Hey Dean... you and Sam still got those charms I gave you?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah,"

"Uh huh," they nodded together after sharing a quick look and smirk.

"Sam you hang onto yours," Dean scowled digging into his wallet for the thin, "The added protection of the charm itself could be the only reason that thing didn't get up in ya..." he shook his head, "Still sounds pretty dirty," he lowered himself to the ground beside the woman.

"Y'think we oughtta get the others out here so they can see?" Bobby asked.

Sam's gaze went somewhere else as the memory of his brother, barely just turned seven, on his knees in the middle of Pastor Jim's office, his body trembling, his throat working as if something invisible was trying to claw its way out of him, followed by bands of golden light sliding over him from the feet upward to the crown of his head over and over again until he seemed to just glow for a long moment.

_Anunnaki... king of the igigi... he was scared of me, he used Dean, Enki's own to try to kill me, _the pieces of the puzzle continued to slide around inside his head, some of the connections making sense while others were less certain, _could it sense Yellow eyes in me? Was it what he did to me that had him scared? Because somehow he knew what I might have to do, what MIGHT have to happen IF we can't find another way?_

"Hey!" Dean smacked his brother lightly, "Where'd you go?" he asked, nervousness breaking through his voice.

"I don't think you'll be able to see anything..." he shook his head swallowing hard as two golden and four silver igigi circled mere feet above them, their faces smooth and barely even hinting at features unlike the gray ones whose every imperfection and corruption was visible writhing through them, "Put the charm in her hand Dean," he instructed, "They're ready."

"I hope to hell you know what you're doing Sam," he grumbled.

"Not me... her, if I understand right..." he nodded, "It'll be okay Dean... I think."

"I'm so reassured," Dean pressed the charm into the palm of her right hand, clasping her hand in his and holding it tight.

He watched, his gaze moving between his little brother's transfixed expression of an odd sort of wonder, and the sudden collapse of Laura's chest toward the ground.

"Sam!" he grumbled sternly watching the flesh of her throat ripple as if something was clawing its way out, very like what happened to Sam when Bobby broke the binding link Meg had burned into his forearm and she was finally forced out, only this time he couldn't see anything emerging into the sky like one could with demons.

"They're drawing it out..." Sam muttered watching as one by one the four silver igigi each pressed what he figured would be their mouths to hers, each time, her chest and belly collapsing almost violently to the ground, _how is she not breaking..._ he wondered watching the ribcage nearly flatten again and again until there was nothing left to draw.

The two golden ones held their position, each with two silver bloodhounds at his side, one by one their heads cocked to the side, a gesture of recognition, perhaps deference, but Sam was almost certain, allegiance, first to him, then to Dean even though he could not see them, and Sam was fairly certain they knew that.

"Is it done?" Bobby asked noting Sam's gaze returning to the tree line as if he was following something.

"Yeah," Sam nodded.

"Laura?" Dean shook her by the chin but she was out cold, "Think she can cross the barrier?" he asked.

"I think so," Sam nodded.

"Get outta the way," Bobby grumbled crouching low to sling the woman over his shoulders. Without hesitation he crossed the barrier and headed for the house with Sam, Dean and Ajax in tow. The dog's smile and lolling tongue all the proof they needed as Dean slid the charm back into his wallet and turned Sam to face him.

"Fill me in," he ordered.

Sam nodded toward the Impala.

A moment later, leaning easily against the trunk he started to explain to Dean what he'd surmised. Anything else... well he'd just have to see.

--

"Oh hell..."

"Son of a bitch," Tom and Shep said together as Bobby returned to the house and walked straight through to the boys' room with Laura over his shoulder.

They dashed in behind him and Mercy would have followed except a large GMC pulled into the drive and parked beside the woman's car.

"Someone in a GMC's here..." she called.

"Tamara and Jack..." Bobby called from the room seconds before the door shut sealing all three men inside with the unconscious woman.

"What the hell's going on?" she sighed watching Sam and Dean greet a pretty black woman and a tall bald black man.

The boys each hugged the woman tight and firmly shook hands with the man as they were all introduced. She'd heard about Tamara and her late husband Isaac a few times in her own travels and knew they were gifted hunters, but had never had the fortune of meeting them and she was anxious to, but wasn't about to leave Gary unguarded. She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the man who she had no doubt would be trying to play on her desire to know what was going on, _Thank God Dean taped his mouth shut._

"Don't even think it Gary... you know me better than that," she smirked plopping back into her chair and tilting her beer bottle back while she continued to puzzle between the notebook and the translation book. So far she'd managed to get a few key words from what might be the first couple sentences but nothing was certain.

"Mmmkay... so we have, 'tower', 'battle'? or is it 'war'? ... 'threaten'? no, 'challenge'... yeah," she flipped back and forth. "These guys are so lucky I have a puzzle fetish," she muttered softly as the front door opened with Tamara leading the way.

She rose quickly, smiled at the two newcomers and shook each of their hands, "I'm Mercy Abbott. You're Tamara and Jack right?" she nodded.

"You're Bobby's niece... s'great to meet you..." Tamara smiled then flicked her thumb to Jack, "This is my brother in law, Jack. Who else is here?" she asked, then looked at Gary inside the key, "You've already got a demon?" she asked.

"Shep and Tom, Bobby of course, some chick named Laura..." she glanced at the closed bedroom door, "Who apparently had a bit of trouble on the way," she hitched her thumb at Gary, "and the idiot tied up in the key is Gary Nelson... he was dumb enough to try and attack Sam."

Tamara chuckled and dropped her head, "Bought in to the hype eh?"

"Yeah, apparently."

"Never met 'im did you?" she asked over Mercy's shoulder.

"And lemme guess the girl Laura... last name Finnegan?" Tamara asked.

"Yeah how'd you know?" Mercy asked as they dropped their bags at the foot of the stairs and followed her into the living room.

"She's got a reputation for being a little bit of a nutter, but that's not all," she smiled.

"Have a seat... can I get ya a couple beers?" she asked retreating to the kitchen.

"Oh hey we brought a demon..." Jack called.

"Eeee ooo," Gary hmm'd beneath the tape.

"You too?" Tamara asked.

He nodded.

"Gary said he's got one too... which car is his? Ours has a shaft of holy wood through her heart," Tamara asked.

"I don't know," Mercy shrugged handing over the beers then yanked the tape off Gary's mouth, "Where's your car?"

"About a quarter mile East inside a copse of trees, the demon's in the trunk, and from the sound of it not as bad off as theirs is," he worked his mouth glad to have the tape off.

"Why would you try to attack Sam?" she asked.

"He's destined to lead an army of demons Mercy... no matter who he is today... he HAS his destiny, we all have our destinies, it's immutable," he sighed.

"You've been hearing what we've been talking about here, we have a two fronted war to fight in the HERE and NOW... you can't judge someone on the basis of something they haven't DONE yet!" she shook her head and slapped the tape back over his mouth before fishing out his car keys.

"I'll go get it," Jack offered.

"Thank you," Mercy smiled easily, "be careful we don't know what might be lurking around outside the wards."

The bedroom door opened and for a moment everyone froze as Bobby took a couple hasty steps, paused and turned to greet the new arrivals.

"Tamara!" he hugged her tightly for a brief moment then offered his hand to her brother in law, "You must be Jack... Bobby, I hear you're picking up the ropes pretty quickly."

"Nice to meet you, Tam's told me a lot about you..." he shook his head, smiled and sighed, "It's a strange new world out there."

Bobby smiled tightly "And it's about to get plenty stranger."

"They brought a demon... So did Gary, it's in the trunk of his car," Mercy cocked her eyebrow at him.

"Damn," Bobby scowled, "Mercy, I need you to get started painting some seals in the shed, Dean and I didn't get it finished thanks to this... idjit," he hitched his thumb toward Gary.

"I'm just gonna go get his car," Jack motioned to the door and headed out.

"Sam and Dean still outside?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah," Mercy nodded, "What's up? Anything I can help with? I was pre-med remember?"

Slowly Bobby nodded, "I know sweetheart, but..." he shook his head obviously torn, "If there's anything we can't handle I holler okay."

Voices; Shep's, Tom's and apparently Laura's wafted out from the open door.

"I said sit your ass DOWN!" Shep hollered taking them all by surprise, "Singer where the hell are you!"

"Coming..." he sighed moving to the bathroom where he grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink then returned to the room closing the door securely behind him.

"That sounds like one picnic I'm glad to not be at," Tamara smiled looking between the notebook and the open tome on the table, "What's this?"

Mercy shook her head, "I don't know, something Sam came across I think... been trying to decipher it a bit but it's slow going," she half groaned.

"I love puzzles," Tamara scooted closer while Mercy showed her what she'd deciphered so far.

--

Beneath the dead forests' ground cover it saw through the emissary's eyes and something deep inside trembled at the bright and uncorrupted streaks that wove their way through these foreign blue skies, _No! It can't be... I refuse to believe it!_ it thought as the six beings hovered. _But I've won! The Emissary is USELESS! This is NOT possible! No! Not when I am THIS close!_ it tried to use the woman, tried to move her as it had the men in the bar but to its infernal frustration it could not.

_I have no choice..._ it realized and tried to withdraw but again, found that it couldn't. Somehow, the emissary had done something, somehow she'd managed to make it unable to extract itself from the wounds it had created in her mind.

As it watched through her slitted eyes, Anunnaki's bloodhounds descend toward her; it felt searing, twisting heat. It remembered the last time it felt such a sensation and the return for vengeance that it swore, and as it felt part of its consciousness torn from the emissary and devoured from existence by the bloodhounds, it drew harder on the dead lands around it and somewhere, something dry began to smolder.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N - Sorry about the delay in posting this... I decided not to overwhelm, overburden, or overtax anyone with five postings in the span of 10 days which is what it would have turned out to be had I gone with the previous plan. As it stands though I'll do my level best to keep it to Sat night/Sunday a.m. and Wednesday posts. As always my deepest and most humble thanks to each of you who takes the time to not just read but to review as well. Knowing you're out there makes the experience all the more joyful. Thank you for that.

----

Dawn – chpt 16

by: sifi.

--

Dean nodded, "It does make sense though, sort of," he scratched his head, "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"What aren't you telling me?" he asked keeping his eyes straight ahead, down the driveway.

Sam smiled, huffed a chuckle and shook his head but knew better than to deny anything, _About what Dean? Which thing?_

"I mean I know there's something you're holding back about you and yellow eyes, but I have my own... insights about that, and I'm pretty sure that when the time is right you'll let me know you're ready to hear why he really did it. But there's something else, it's like an itch in the back of my brain and I can't quite find it..." he tried to explain.

For a single moment Sam's heart stopped in his chest as his brothers' words slammed into his head, _Does he really know or does he just suspect?_ he wondered briefly, remembering all the times he'd been maneuvered into spilling something Dean knew he was holding too deeply, he took a deep breath and felt his heart start again as the inside of his head was swept with cotton.

With a faint smile he played the game, wiser now than he had been then, "Do you believe in destiny Dean?"

The elder hunter had an instantaneous flash of a shaft of electrical conduit piping twisting through the air before threading itself through the windshield of a car and the chest of its driver, a man he wouldn't allow Sam to kill.

He waggled his head in a yes/no gesture, "I'll admit that certain courses of action will have definite and predictable consequences. I mean certain kinds of 'happy endings' CAN be bought," he spocked his eyebrow at his brother, "And please tell me we're not back to talking about you taking the reins in hell and turning into some demonic General alright? I thought we were past that..."

"Why would you think we're past it?" he chuckled, "Just cause it hasn't happened within the last year? Just cause we were lucky enough for me not to have to try and buy your contract back with a pledge of servitude to the Emperor of Hell himself?" he turned to stand nose to nose with his big brother, "Cause if you recall correctly we were both standing at that jagged edge there Dean, and so help me I was ready. If that bitch had showed up... I didn't care what it was gonna take, I was ready Dean. I _couldn't_ let you go down, not for me, not after everything..." he clamped his mouth shut and turned his misty eyes away grateful it hadn't gone that far. Grateful that neither of them had been put into that situation, and he felt guilty as hell for whatever damage killing the crossroad host like that had done to Laura's soul, but he wouldn't change how things had gone down for a split second.

Silence sat with surprising ease between the two men as Dean gave his brother time to collect himself. When he was relatively certain Sam was back on an even keel, he leaned back against the Impala, "It might surprise you Sam, but I do realize we don't have all the pieces to the big picture yet and I can live with that, as long as we can get through this and either kill or turn that bastard back... we are NOT going to lose this universe because WE dropped the ball do you understand me?" he asked.

Beside him Sam nodded, "I agree."

Dean swung his head down then looked out toward the road as Sam nudged him, "Got any ideas?"

"I'm thinking," the elder man nodded, "You never answered my question though," he muttered.

"I'm tired Dean... you have a question just ask..."

"Why do you keep stonewalling me every time I ask or get near the subject of what happened in the Dryad's glade?"

Sam nodded smirking tightly, _Damnit..._ "Y'know what? Ask your girl, it's not my place to say," he breathed.

"Come ON Sam... you saw what happened to that whole area! You know just as well as I do the only reason we didn't wind up as dead as every plant and animal in a hundred yard radius is because of what she did!" he argued forcefully.

"I know, and those kinds of magiks don't come cheap... there's a reason no one's been able to pull down a real cone of power in over a thousand years Dean..."

Dean shook his head, he'd known but hadn't wanted to face the possibilities, "I can't take this..."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked confused.

Dean turned, looking his brother in the eyes, "You know I love that woman Sam."

Sam nodded.

"But I can't keep this up, wondering when I'm gonna find out she's dead, or did some crazy stupid thing like this..." he motioned to the side yard, "All this is hard enough without having to worry about some crazy, kamikaze, self destructive streak running through her and when it's gonna finally just... win. When it's gonna come down and there isn't gonna be anything left..." he stopped, checked his breathing and turned away, his gaze down the driveway again, "This is why I always tried to tell you Sam, don't get attached to people, you'll always be better off if you just don't let folks in y'know?"

"Dean don't do this," Sam asked softly.

"I don't see much other choice..." he shook his head, frankly surprised by his little brothers' plea.

"What if I could tell you it's almost over?" Sam hedged.

"What? Her LIFE!" Dean spat.

After a few seconds of silence between them he felt a ball of heat drop into his lower belly as he turned to his little brother, "Sam?" he jockeyed his head around trying to catch the younger man's eyes, "Sam please..."

"Don't... don't ask me..."

"Is she dying Sam?" he asked, then thought hard for a minute, "She is... channeling that kind of power did something, didn't it?"

"It's not what you think."

"Well then damnit Sam tell the truth!" Dean barked.

"Did you ever wonder how she can always find us? Never needs to ask where we are, but still, no matter what name we're using no matter where we are, she can find us if she wants to?" Sam asked.

Dean thought back to one of the first time's she'd been called away from him, when Sam was supposed to have been on his way to New York to see Sarah, but instead had gone trying to chase down a demon that was trying to sink its claws into Dean.

"_What's it feel like?" he asked. _

_She smiled, closed her eyes and turned her beaming face upward, "It's like following the sun with your face… without the sunburn,"_

"I just kinda took it for granted that she just knew," Dean shrugged.

"She made me promise to let everything unfold as it's supposed to. I thought I could keep it," he shook his head, "She didn't just channel the energy at the glade, if she had the cone wouldn't have been any more powerful than anything else your average suburbanite wicca does. For that kind of power a sacrifice has to be made, and it has to be willing."

Dean's skin pebbled in goose flesh as the implications hit home and he started to understand, "What did she do Sam? All that blood, all that living energy, she just poured it out didn't she? And she's gonna do the same thing here today," he ventured his guess.

Sam nodded, "It'll kill her, it has to, it's part of the plan," he sighed.

"What?" Dean questioned, barely able to hear his brother's voice for the rush of blood in his ears and the pounding of his heart.

He grasped Dean's shoulder before he could turn and stalk back into the house, "But with luck it's not going to be the end. Summoning the energies, casting hers into the mix, it kinda supercharged her. Doing this, releasing it all today with the rest of the ritual that's going to bring the veil over this place to hide us from the marauder... think of it like restarting the computer," his eyes pleaded with his big brothers', "but if she doesn't have a reason, meaning _you_ to come back to, she might not come back at all."

"What're you talking about?" Dean asked shaking his head.

"Haven't you noticed? Ever since then... up until that barbie doll bitch snagged you out from under me... she hasn't been around a whole lot, and when she has, she's been kinda antsy... a little closed off..." he pointed out.

After a moment's thought Dean looked up his expression asking for further explanation, he'd noticed it but it hadn't registered.

"She's been scared half to death Dean..."

"Of me? What?" he asked.

"No," Sam shook his head, "Not OF you, FOR you... she's barely been able to control her abilities, a few months ago she gave an unconscious suggestion at the same time as an influence and the guy had a stroke, and it doesn't look like he's ever going to recover. She even tried to influence him to heal, but it didn't work..."

"Wha...well... how do _you_ know this? I mean... _I'm_ the one she should turn to Sam," his expression and windowpane eyes couldn't begin to hide his hurt.

Sam shook his head, "I only got it out of her a few days ago, the morning after I got you back. She said she was going to explain it all to you after she finished the ritual."

"I thought you said it's going to kill her? That it's part of the plan! How could you agree to that!" he half yelled.

"With or without our support she's going to do it anyway, part of the ritual is about balance it's about this place being able to maintain a balance between worlds until the veil is lifted. She was hoping that by, in effect forcing her own 'shut down', she could 'reboot' and she wouldn't have to be afraid of hurting us, or anyone else unless it was intended," he explained.

Dean nodded understanding the idea but still stinging, "Why didn't she want me to know about this until it was done?"

Sam's twisted sad smile spoke volumes, "She said she didn't want you to feel obligated."

--

"What the bloody 'ell are you doing with that?" Tamara asked watching Bobby press the fluid from a row of roots on his cutting board, "You do know these are poison don't you?" she asked examining the leaves in the garbage can.

"Yep," he grunted, "Do me a favor see if the Angelica's done steeping yet," he nodded toward a covered mug.

"Nice rich color, looks like it's done," she leaned over and breathed in the fragrance, "Smells like it, what's this for Bobby?"

"We have to bind the wards between worlds," he muttered turning the edge of his blade to begin chopping the roots.

"Well it's a damn good thing we've got two hosts then isn't it?" she smirked.

"For this one, the sacrifice has to be willing. There can't be an instant of doubt or hesitation," his eyes flicked to the side and in that instant he knew she'd made the connection.

"It's 'er... isn't it? It's that girl..." she frowned motioning to the closed bedroom door, "Bobby she's not in 'er right mind... you of all people should know 'at..." she said to his back.

He turned to face her, his eyes trying to hide the wetness, "I know that girl better than you can imagine," his eyes flicked to the bay window where Sam and Dean were walking up the drive, "Aside from either of those two fellah's right there she's the ONLY person I know who won't hesitate..." he met her eyes, "No offense."

"None taken. The other hunters..." she started, "There's rumors about 'er..." she didn't notice but Tom, Shep and Mercy now stood in the kitchen doorway listening, "some folks say she's a demon, some say she's a devil in 'er own right... most folks just think she's mad..."

"Well if she was a demon or devil she couldn't have been brought across the barrier without being trapped. Besides, any of 'em ever work with her?" he asked stirring the pulverized roots and its juices into a quarter cup of boiling water then covering it with a saucer.

"Not tha' I'm aware," she admitted.

Behind them all, Dean slid into the bedroom as Sam joined the group in the doorway, "So, what's say we all sit down to the table and start putting this puzzle together huh?" towering over the others as he did he met Bobby's eyes, "How's it coming Bobby?" he asked as everyone made their way back toward the front room.

"Just need the oak leaves and the silver platter then we're ready to go whenever she is," he acknowledged making sure to scrub his hands thoroughly.

"Good..." Sam nodded sliding into the kitchen and leaning against the cupboard. Waiting.

The grizzled and frustrated man leaned forward opening the oven and taking a whiff, then closed the door and turned up the heat, "It should be done about the same time we are... that is if anyone's gonna have an appetite," he smiled dryly grasping Sam by the arm once he was sure the others were far enough away, "Sam I don't like this."

The young Winchester nodded, _there's a LOT more that might be coming that you're not gonna like if we can't figure this out amongst ourselves, _"I don't either, but first and foremost, it HAS to be done, we have to be safe this weekend. But even more important," he looked at the closed bedroom door, "after everything he's done all his life for me Bobby," he shook his head, his eyes pleading with the older mans', "I want him to have just ONE good thing..."

"Well what do you think YOU are boy?" he grasped the younger man by the neck, "You're _everything_ to that man Sam..."

Sam nodded and smiled easily, reciprocating the older man's gesture with a purely Winchester smirk on his face.

Reluctantly Bobby nodded, "I know I know, it's not the same," he leaned in, "But what if she can't come back?"

Sam smiled, "He's brought her back before, he can do it again."

--

"How're you doing?" Dean asked sitting on the bed opposite her.

"Feel like I got run over by a freight train..." she smiled looking into his eyes, "Dean I'm really sorry about all the psycho shit out there... that thing got in my head... twisted up every single insecurity I've got and played it like a violin."

"Hey, it's what the bad guys do y'know?" he smiled softly, some of Sam's own delirious behavior from the other day making more sense as well, "Are you sure you're up to doing this thing today?" he asked carefully.

"No, but there's no choice, the sidhe literally can't resume their guard positions until it's done, and I've kept them waiting too long already," she gulped down half a bottle of water, "God I'm a freakin' mess...Son of a bitch broke my damned hand... I think at least in two places...listen..." she looked up, "you gotta keep your eyes on Sam. It uses people, it can manipulate them, and it's been attacking him, trying to find a way in," she urged.

"Yeah, kinda got that..." he nodded.

"If it can sense the barrier about to stabilize... if it's strong enough it... I don't know what it might do or what it's capable of. And once this ritual gets under way I'm going to be completely incapacitated, I won't be able to lift a finger to help with anything," she continued.

Dean nodded, "...can you still feel it?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, "Its _strong_ Dean, it's been feeding non stop since it went into the ground and it's almost full," her breath trembled, "Listen, there's something you have to know about what's gonna happen today, but however it ends just understand I will never willingly abandon you. I will never leave you and Sam alone in this fight by choice," she breathed.

Dean cocked his head to the side, wondering just how much she was going to tell him before she went and killed herself, "What do you mean?" he asked.

She chuckled and hung her head, "I wanted to wait, to explain it all when it was done, when... but I don't know if there _will _be an after... the final part of the ritual is a three part process... and it's going to kill me..."

--

"I've never seen anything like this before and I've seen everything!" Fire Marshall Mike Torgeson kicked at a piece of debris that simply seemed to disappear with the passage of the air current his foot made. The ash was so thick it was almost riding over the edges of his knee high fireproof boots as they walked the site.

"There was no lightning reported around here, no flash fires, no reason for this... I mean it almost looks like talc y'know? Dirty talc but still... who reported it?" Ranger Chris Petrelli asked, also noting that the ashes were about to start falling into his boots too.

When they'd arrived and ventured from the road into the burn site both men had nearly wound up on their faces. After so many years of walking fire sites it was natural to expect some sponginess in the ground, but a solid 18 inch drop was unheard of. It was as if someone or some thing had dug a pit a foot and a half, maybe two feet deep and simply filled it with some near equivalent of volcanic ash. The stuff was so fine that neither man dared to take off their particle masks. Every move they made to check out the radius of the pit kicked up clouds the stuff that gave the air the quality of a heavy fog.

"The way I figure this looks to be about a mile in circumference, and the chopper that flew over this morning said it was almost a perfect circle," Chris offered, "almost like some kind of a bomb crater."

"Are you kidding me?" Mike eyed him disbelievingly.

"I'm just telling you what was reported in," the ranger shrugged.

"Yeah well, no natural fire is gonna burn hot enough to do this..." he nodded.

Beneath their feet the earth shifted and a column of ash lifted into the sky propelled by an impossibility that left them speechless and staring.

Their eyes followed the emerging figure as it rose to its full height of more than ten feet; twelve at the very tops of the obsidian head dress of what appeared to be spine tipped feathers perhaps carved out of either rock or iron.

Its central face, replete with inward curved, glistening serpentine fangs split into a wide grin, followed almost immediately by the other two faces, one on either side of its head.

From its back, a pair of black multilayered wings stretched out to the world, shaking the ash from between the layers of its heavy looking feathers.

Hands with segmented talons closed around their waists, the ranger gazed in mute horror as the hand holding his friend squeezed, forcing jets of blood and intestine out through his mouth as he twitched and gurgled in its grip.

"Oh God..." were the last words Chris Petrelli spoke as the central mouth grinned wider, each of the creature's three eyes lit with fire as that jaw dropped open and those curved needle teeth clamped easily through his neck, severing his head.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks sifi.


	17. Chapter 17

Dawn – chpt 17.

by: sifi.

--

With the arrival of Ellen and Jo, their group was now complete, and it was time to get this meeting of hunters under way.

In the middle of the living room Dean stopped and stood looking down at Gary Nelson still tied up in his chair within the Key of Solomon. Sam stood on his brother's right looking into the man's eyes.

No one breathed as the eldest Winchester drew back his good right arm letting fly with a punch that popped the man's spine half way down his chest and turned his jaw purple before his head finished snapping back to center.

Without exception, everyone cringed.

Dean grasped the man's chin and watched his eyes wobble crazily through the room, trying to coordinate their movements so he could focus.

"You ever THINK about touching, hurting, or causing through ANY means harm to my brother again and you'll only be able to wish you were dead," he growled.

"Bring him," Dean ordered watching as Sam turned in front of him following Bobby through the kitchen, and knowing that Laura was behind him with Jo on her good right side.

Jack and Mercy grabbed Gary, one to an arm, with Ellen and Shep following behind with their guns trained on the man while Tom covered the rear as they moved through the house, the yard, and into the shed where the two demon possessed hosts were seated, each one bound within a separate devils trap, both of which were surrounded by a circle of salt and lime.

"Stay outside the outer ring please," Laura asked softly, stepping over the boundary as did Bobby who set two vials and a silver platter littered with Oak leaves on a table off to the side before stepping back across the outer perimeter.

"You're all here because Bobby asked it of you. Bobby asked you all to come because he believes that YOU are the ones that are capable of not only comprehending what's going to happen here this weekend, but also because he knows that what you'll see, you'll do your level best to explain to other hunters," Laura stood between the two demon possessed hosts, leaning heavily on them.

"Some of you might have heard some things about me..." she smiled at them each, those who knew her best understanding the sadness beneath it all, "None of it matters. This however, is your chance to make up your own mind. You've all heard what Dean and Sam have told you about the threat our universe faces... and I do mean UNIVERSE... not Earth, not our solar system, not the Milky Way Galaxy... every picture you've ever seen that Hubble has ever sent back... every ubiquitous galactic representation you've ever seen WILL CEASE TO EXIST if we can't stop this," As she spoke, around the construct the air began to shimmer and people, eighteen to twenty four inches tall began to appear, each one, male, female, standing at intervals, girded for battle, their eyes closed, their concentration obviously focused. Among the group as the veil thinned and the lines between realms blurred, expanding, the edges growing hazy until each of the wee warriors were clear to every hunter present.

"Holy shit they're real..." Gary breathed.

At the point closest to Sam, Dean, and Laura stood the one she called Mustard seed, his eyes red and glassy, his cheeks and beard shimmering as he silently watched, his eyes flitting between Bobby's, and the Winchester brothers and yet somehow unable to touch those of the one he loved the most.

"If you can't quite wrap your brain around it... the boys can introduce you to the multiverse concept..." she assured them all, "If we... if YOU fail... we might as well never have existed," she finished and swallowed hard.

For a long moment her gaze went somewhere far away, "It's reborn...I wish I could fight beside you one more time," she turned looking between Bobby, Dean and Sam.

Her breath shortened in her chest and throat, "You know what to do?" she asked Bobby who nodded. Glancing over the assembly of hunters she bit her lip and reminded them quietly, "Energy is the building block of everything... Please... no matter what happens, don't let yourselves give up. If it's at all possible, when the fight comes I'll be there..." she nodded watching Bobby light the silver platter full of green oak leaves on fire and set it at her feet, then hand her an athame of silver as the smoke enveloped her.

"The oak represents the strongest of Earths' children..." she explained then softly asked, "protect your servant..." she dipped the point of the blade into the vein of her left arm and drawing it upward by a couple inches let her blood run freely into the tray. Drops and streams lit orange-yellow with fire, she drew a lung full of the smoke, "Its essence is carried through the air... protect your servant."

She set the blade into her left hand but it refused to close around the hilt and fell to the ground.

"Stop this!"

"No!" Tamara and Jo yelled eyeing Sam, Bobby and Dean fiercely while Tom and Shep kept a gently restraining hand on each of them.

Dean stepped forward and picked up the ceremonial dagger as a sigh was heard from a few of the hunters.

To their surprise and to some, disbelief, he pressed the hilt to the palm of her hand, and with glassy eyes held it there until she started to angle the blade. He shook his head looking into her eyes, "I can't."

"Stop this..." Mercy half demanded but held her position.

Sam stepped forward and pressed the blade back into her hand, then covered it with Dean's hand, clamping the two together tightly while she pressed the point into the vein of her right arm and drew it upward an inch or so, letting the blood fall freely onto the smoking tray.

"What're you doing!" Mercy asked then looked at her uncle, "What the hell is he doing?"

Bobby shook his head.

"What has to be done," Shep muttered almost inaudibly.

When the blood began to flow, Sam stepped back with a gentle squeeze to his brothers' shoulder, for the moment, neither man was able to draw a full breath.

Laura breathed the smoke and opened the first vial, the one with the Angelica decoction, "Water is the first place that life came to be...Protect your servant..." she tipped it back and sank to the earth on her knees.

On either side of her the demon possessed hosts who had at first sat with scornful smiles on their faces now traded the looks for those of fear.

She reached for the second vial and unstoppered it, her eyes cast upward for a moment before breath caught in her throat as she looked from Dean to Sam and back again.

Dean's crystal green eyes held onto hers even though he was thinking about the last few minutes the three of them had alone in the bedroom, just a couple hours ago. _Is there anything I could have said that would have changed her mind about this? _he wondered.

_On his lap he drew her tight to his chest, "You don't have to do this... we have enough life energy around here to seal this place for a year without anyone dying for it." _

_She smiled faintly, cradling his face gently in her hands, "Dean, it's about to re-emerge into our world... without the power that comes from a willing sacrifice..." _

"_I know I know... it'd be like trying to trip king kong with a shoe string," he nodded as Sam returned to the room and sat across from them again. _

_Laura looked at him pointedly, "Just make sure they understand what's at stake, they may be demons but they're a known quantity, if they won't stand beside us in this war then at least maybe they'll take up the cause themselves and go up against the igigi on their own... and if they WILL stand beside us..." she whispered. _

_Sam nodded, "I know, then they'll have the leader Yellow Eyes promised them after all." _

_Fear beat inside Deans heart so loudly he almost couldn't hear the hope behind it, the hope that maybe THIS was how it was all supposed to work anyway, that IF the baby he'd done his best to raise into the man he was proud to call his brother, was DESTINED to lead a demonic army, that maybe, just maybe it was against a common foe. 'Please let it be like this if it has to be at all...' he begged the universe._

"_The others are ready..." Sam nodded and stood as Laura rose to her feet as well and embraced him hard. _

_She drew him down until their foreheads touched, "Whatever happens Sam, I have faith in you. And I love you," she swept his lips with hers then watched him straighten, meet eyes with his brother and nod before leaving them alone for a moment longer. _

_When the door closed she turned in Dean's arms pulling him as completely as possible against herself. _

"_You don't have to do this," he said again, "I don't want you to do this." _

"_I'm not capable of living like this and never letting myself see you or be near you again, and I can't live with the chance that I could ever hurt either of you, intentionally or not and it's only a matter of time before that happens... I'd rather be dead than to let that happen," she explained once more. _

_Wordlessly John's first born lowered his head and captured her lips between his for what they both knew may be the last time. _

Dean stepped forward, stiffly lowering himself to her side and wrapped his hand around hers.

"Come back to me..." he said, not caring who might hear.

"If I can..." she nodded.

"Even if you can't..." he whispered, raising the vial to her lips.

"How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?..." she breathed as he tilted the bitter brew down her throat, his good right hand behind her head, mist covering his eyes as her body spasmed, her muscles clenching , blood trailing lines from her mouth, nose, and eyes in the long moments after ingesting the fatal decoction.

Dean sat on his heels, the woman held to his chest as her last breath slipped from her lungs and her heart ceased its beat.

An explosive pulse of warmth raced outward from the shed, the walls rattled with its passage, the grasses waved, and at the far end of the yard a jagged stack of tires toppled over as the hunters, sidhe, and demons present watched its wake.

Moments later, in a full circle around the perimeter a band of amber light grew to almost blinding brightness before shooting straight upward in a transparent cylinder of color and illumination. In the span of another heart beat, the day returned to normal and all eyes turned back to the shed.

"Are they still inside Sam?" Tom asked as Dean moved to the male host Gary brought.

Sam nodded, "Yep, doesn't look like they can get out either..." he watched a group of four gray igigi sail nervously through the air, beating themselves futilely against the barrier just like they had against the one created by the salt line and palo santo seal at the hospital. He watched them swoop again, this time toward the captive hosts, only to batter themselves against each of the seals that kept the demons safe from predation. _Soon, she's almost gone now,_ he thought uncertain if he was actually seeing the dark granules of the demon's 'body' starting to roll bit by bit out of the hole around the holy wood stake that was still protruding from the hosts' chest. "They're hungry Dean, and I think this one's dead."

"Are you guys talking about those... igigi... things?" Jo asked, examining the skies for the presence of anything dark gray and smudgy looking.

Bobby handed a jar to Sam.

Dean motioned to the female host. "Who here besides Sam, Bobby and me have actually ever seen a demon die?" he asked.

Ellen cleared her throat and smirked at Dean who had the sense to almost blush, "And Ellen," he added with a smile.

"I have," the male host snarked.

"I'm getting to you," Dean nodded as he met eyes with each of the other hunters, none of whom seemed to have ever witnessed this particular phenomenon.

Turning back to the male host, his eyes slid over Laura's body and he swallowed, "Can your kind see them?" he asked and before anyone realized what happened he had the colt pressed to the man's forehead.

"Yes! Yes we can see them," he answered quickly.

Sam opened the jar and stepped into the seal with the dead demon. Nodding at Bobby he slid it over the point of the stake, pressing the rim to her breastbone as the senior hunter slowly started to slide the shaft of wood from her body.

"Then you know how many of them there are," he urged.

"Yes, thousands of them," the host answered.

"Is it working Sam?" Dean asked over his shoulder.

"Believe it or not, I think it is... it's weird though, just kinda turning into this smoky film," he nodded.

"Good, get as much as you can," he nodded and returned their attention to the male host, "Now correct me if I'm wrong here... but to _them_... you guys are a delicacy, kind of caviar if you will," Dean continued.

The host nodded.

"Well there's no accounting for taste... but ...when they breech the gates, and you know they will," Dean smirked coldly, "you guys are pretty much an all you can eat buffet... s'at right?" he asked.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"And does any of your kind really believe that as long as those things are around that even in Hell you're safe?" he asked.

With obvious reluctance the host shook his head, "No."

"Does your kind know how to kill them?" Dean asked.

"I don't. As for any others, I don't know..." it admitted.

Dean turned toward the gathered hunters, "See... they feed on humans too, our weaknesses, our vice, doubts... anything that shadows the human soul, but we can live for decades while these things feed off of us, but when it comes to demons... they're pigs. Seems they just can't help themselves, they set in and can't stop chowing on you guys until you're all gone," he explained.

"Then why are we concerned about them at all if we can continue for decades... let them feast on the demons, do our jobs for us..." Jack pointed out.

Dean nodded, "Good point. That'd be great, I mean put a lot of us out of business so to speak, but it would be great if we didn't have to worry about demons anymore..." he drew back the hammer on the colt and raised it toward the hosts' head.

"Wait... Wait!" it scrambled trying to lean away from the infamous hunter and gun, "You think the world is a crap hole NOW? Just wait till those things have fed on your kind for a couple more decades! It'll be just as big a Hell as _Hell_ is..." the demon inside the host spat, "they don't feed on your misery and make it go away... they feed on it and it grows, it spreads like a bacteria... vice, avarice, apathy, loathing, self destructive behavior, they LOVE it... they GROW it INSIDE you until there's nothing of your own humanity left... burning it out in the pit is merciful in comparison..." it explained.

"How do we get rid of these things?" Ellen asked.

"We have to get rid of the marauder first. It's using them as its ground troops..." Sam started to explain as he closed the lid on a jar full of sooty black-ish not quite smoke.

"Okay, just so you're all clear, and in case you need proof, step up to the line," Sam instructed watching as their fellow hunters made sure not to cross the seal, "We've all seen demons evacuate a host or exorcised from one. When the demon dies, the manifestation of its energy eventually dissipates, it's not something that can be found inside an autopsied body, there will be a slightly higher than normal amount of sulfur in the blood but no dead giveaways..."

Sam stuck his foot out almost ready to break the seal around the female and watched as all four of the gray igigi hovered, warty mottled tongues running over warped and pustulent looking bends in their malicious faces, _I hate it when they get this close,_ he thought watching the darkened sockets that were their eyes follow the motion of his hand that held the jar. He moved it up toward them ready to swear he could almost see them salivating until he noticed something strange, and his eyes flicked to Dean's.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

"Look at the jar Sam..." Mercy motioned.

"Yeah," he nodded turning his attention to the host, "What's going on?"

"I don't know," he shook his head.

"What would happen if I just..." Sam motioned with his foot toward the seal around the man.

"Keep them away from me!" the male host leaned away from the female.

"Sam," Dean nodded as the smoke inside the jar actually seemed to cling to the glass at the point farthest away from the igigi.

The youngest Winchester nodded and toed a break in the seal around the woman, "You all can't see 'em but you can see what they do... keep your eyes on the..."

"What the hell?" Jack pointed to the woman. Strands of dark matter that makes up the demon's essence seemed to be drawn lazily through the air in several directions only to disappear in the middle of nothing. There was no propulsion of its own as there was in an exorcism or when a demon left its host, these bits were being drawn from the host and devoured before their eyes.

"Let me go! Let me out of here Winchester..." the male half demanded.

To his surprise it was Sam who leaned forward, looking the demon in the eyes, "You remind all your kind that Nergal is back, he and his troops will go right through you one by one, or in droves to get what he wants, and what he wants is to destroy what he can't have. You tell your kind, if they're not going to help us, they'd better stay out of our way, cause this..." he motioned to the female, "we don't really care, and the way they work, we'll out last your kind in the end. Get my point?" he asked.

The male nodded quickly, his eyes widening as the last bits of his fellow captive were fought over by the gleefully piggish faces. Their dark eyes turned to him, sensing the demon inside and a continuation of their feast.

"How do I get in touch with you when I have their answer?" it asked.

Dean held up a cell phone then stuck it into the hosts' jacket pocket.

"Don't call us, we'll call you. You've got forty eight hours to spread the word and have an answer," Sam nodded as Dean cut the ropes binding its body.

It stood toe to toe with Sam once it was free, sizing him up. Throughout the shed no one moved and very few even breathed as Sam swept his toe through the lines of the trap, "Make sure it's the _right_ answer," he ordered.

Glancing around at the assembly of hunters the demon inside the male didn't know what unnerved it more, that corrupted lesser gods were getting ready to pounce, or that it may have to face Azazel's chosen again.

With a nod that was almost a faint bow, the assembly breathed again as the demon disappeared.

"You think he'll do it?" Tamara asked.

"I really don't care," Sam shrugged. "Even if he doesn't, and even if they don't... as long as they stay out of our way that's all that really matters," he sighed.

"How was he able to cross the barrier to leave when those things can't?" Jo asked.

"Because like it or not, the demons we know and loathe are indigenous to this plane of existence... the igigi and the marauder aren't, so while they can't get inside the barrier without being within a trap, once they're free of the trap itself, they _are_ able to get out," Dean explained then turned toward Laura's body which lay within a circle of sidhe guards.

"And the others can't get in _or_ out?" she asked.

"That's right," Sam nodded then looked at his brother, "How is she?"

"Still warm," he whispered meeting eyes with the one she called Mustard seed, "Will she be able to come back?" he asked well aware that they understood.

The diminutive warrior sniffed and shrugged then pressed the heel of his hand to Dean's forehead.

The last thing the elder brother heard was Sam's voice call out his name as the world seemed to open up, leaving him free falling.

--

"They're like us... some good, some bad, some ... apathetic... ALL igigi feed on demons, and should the necessity arise they will ALL also feed on humans and OUR weaknesses," he explained.

"Then what kind of a chance do you really think we stand Sam?" Gary asked rubbing the feeling back into his wrists before sandwiching a slice of roast into a roll.

The young hunter shook his head, "If we can't turn back or kill the marauder, not much, but it won't matter anyway," he looked around the table making contact with every set of eyes there, "Losing to this thing is NOT an option, once we win against the marauder we can worry about rousting its troops," his gaze slid to the couch where Dean lay still unconscious and with his own little cadre of sidhe guards, and on the floor beside him the warriors had carried in the body of the emissary as well.

"Singer I honestly thought you'd skipped out on us..." Gary shook his head in reference to the sidhe, "I still can't believe it..."

"Is she really dead Sam or is it some kind of coma or something?" Jo asked.

He shook his head with a sad frown, "S'not a coma."

"But it's possible she can come back right?" Tamara asked before Ellen could.

"Yeah, that's why they're guarding her body, keeping decomposition from starting in case she does come back," he explained.

"How long until you know?" Ellen asked.

"When the barrier goes down we'll know," Tom said softly, easily reading the distressed look on the youngest Winchester's face.

"So what can we expect from these igigi things... you said they're like people, they're not all after the same thing, are any of them going to be able to help us? or even want to?" Mercy asked.

Sam and pushed his plate aside, he wasn't going to be able to eat until Dean woke up. _If anything happens to him... _"We're hoping that without... the marauder to give them direction, that most of them will go back to following their original king, but we know some of them..." he stopped, his eyes moving over his big brother then over Laura's body, and finally over their friends, some of whom he'd known all his life, "Some of them..." he stopped and closed his eyes "won't."

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	18. Chapter 18

Dawn – chpt 18

by sifi.

--

"Hey... easy... easy..." Sam moved quickly, sliding his arm behind Dean's back, scooping him into an upright position on the couch while the elder hunter blinked himself back to the world his body inhabited.

"You okay?" he asked, holding his bottle of beer at his big brothers' mouth.

"Mmm," Dean nodded swigging down the brew.

"Dean what happened? What did he do to you?" he asked looking from the small warrior who lay curled at Laura's side, up into his brothers' glazed expression.

Dean shook his head, "Mmm I...I don't..." he looked around, "Sammy?"

The young hunter grasped his big brother by the face, angling his gaze up to his own eyes, "Dean... look at me."

He watched the older man's eyes focus slowly on his own.

"Dean tell me what you've seen..."

"Mmm..." he half smiled then frowned, "Mmm my son..." he scrubbed his face with his palms, "He is reborn..." he whispered as blood dripped from his nose down over his lips, "He has reached maturity... you are not ready..." he grasped Sam by the face and pressed their foreheads together, "You will be... this I swear my son..." his eyes fell to the TV tray Sam had been working at, trying to decipher still more of whatever it was that Dean had written while in the grasp of this ancient deity.

"Enki..." Sam spoke.

"Son?" Dean's hand caressed his face.

"My brother can't survive you... you're killing him... every time you use him it hurts him..." he frowned feeling his eyes skip the misting part and moving right into the tearing.

His hand slid to the back of Sam's head, drawing him close, "As long as you survive so shall we," he whispered conspiratorially.

"But at what price! Every time you make an appearance you take a little more of my brother from me! I NEED HIM!" Sam half hollered through clenched teeth while grasping that face he knew so well.

Dean's casted hand reached out for the notebook, his right hand took the pen.

"Magnificent..." he smiled tracing the vertical lines of cuneiform on the pad.

"Ahh..." he smiled drawing a line separating columns before running a dark "X" through the writing on the left. He turned the piece of paper and seemed to read through the second half, "This will help... but your road is long and hard ahead... and my brother's son is on the move... when he comes you will be ready," his hand cupped Sam's cheek while his face shone with affection.

Sam shook his head and fought hard against the burning desperation in his heart and belly, "I don't know what I'm doing!" he confided urgently, "I don't know how to fight this thing... God why'd it have to come NOW?" he shook his head, his conscience agonized.

"Because now is when it came," the deity used his brother to shrug as the droplets from his nose became a small stream. His finger swept at the blood, "How did we become so fragile?"

Sam shook his head unable to hold back the ribbons from his eyes, "It's too big... Please... you're going to kill him...don't take him from me... I need him..."

"She who roared and smote in the chaos of creation... awaken her... she is the keeper," he said as breath came short in Dean's chest and flecks of blood peppered his lips and concern bent his brows, "My son... you WILL do what you must..." Dean's eyes grew wide as a sudden cough sputtered out a stream of thick viscous red. His arm reached forward, his hand grasping Sam at the joining of the neck and shoulder, "Remember who you are. My boy... My king..." Dean's body fell forward against Sam, thick ropes of blood running from his nose and mouth, his chest vibrating with wheezes even as his breath tried to come fuller.

"God Dean..." Sam choked maneuvering his brother so that he lay on his side on the couch.

"Sam?" her voice asked softly as she padded into the living room, "Sam what's wrong?"

The youngest Winchester, when all he wanted to do was lay his head on his big brothers' chest and listen to his heart beat, feeling the breath moving through his body; sniffed and looked over his shoulder, "Nothing Mercy... it's okay."

But it was too late, she was at his side, her mouth turned down in a sharp frown, "Okay? Is this what you call okay? He's hemorrhaging Sam!... What the hell's going on here!" she barked, sweeping her finger through Dean's mouth to make sure there was no obstruction.

Sam shook his head, "It's over... it's done... he'll recover..."

"It's that THING isn't it?" she asked angrily.

"It spoke through him again didn't it?" she surmised and huffed, "Damnit Sam! That thing's gonna kill him! He's your brother for Pete's sake! Don't you give a damn..."

"Don't!" he warned in a low voice, his red and bleary eyes fixed on his brother, "Don't you even _begin_ to think you understand what's happening here..."

"Well then explain it to me Sam! C'Mon! We used to be friends..." she insisted.

"We are," Sam nodded, "But you will NEVER know what we've..." he shook his head turning to look her in the eyes, "be grateful," he sniffed, turning back to his brother and began to wipe the streamlets of blood from his face as Dean's chest began to spasm and a wrenching bark moved out his throat. His eyes fluttered open as his body started to rock in time with the wrenching.

"Dean?" _Heal, please Dean... breathe, heal... _he closed his eyes, _rest and heal..._ the image of an easy glow of energy between them flowed through his mind.

On the couch his brother gasped, his fingers clutched Sam's shirt as the younger man wrapped his arm around Dean's back, scooting him forward while Mercy slid a garbage can under his head. When the stream of red and yellow coursed out it left the eldest of John's boys pale, waxy, and trembling, but at least without the frightening rattling in his chest

"There you go... good man," Sam breathed a hasty prayer of thanks that he would have his brother back.

"...aaam..." Dean groaned weakly, his hand flopping up then falling back to the couch almost as quickly.

"I'm here Dean... I got'cha... I'm here..." he smiled softly.

Dean's pale lips twisted in a faint smile, "mmm .." before his breathing leveled out and he passed into sleep.

--

Before her, rising impossibly high into the black and orange sky stood the first of seven gates she was destined to once again pass through. On either side of the gate stood a guard, each of them, one of Ereshkegal's elite. _I don't want to be here,_ she knew and if she'd had a body, her belly would have quivered with uneasiness while her heart hammered. _I know what's going to come... I'm not ready yet..._ she felt fear as each of the guards stepped forward with a taloned hand extended their cold onyx eyes piercing out from their avian heads.

Slowly she drew the bronze cuffs from her wrists, placing one in each of the guards' hands. As they drew back to their posts the four story obsidian gates swung soundlessly inward allowing her passage.

_Please don't make me go in there..._ but her feet refused to listen as they carried her along the black-plated, limned with orange stony ground, _I can't go through that seventh gate... I can't go through it, if I do I'll never get out of here... Ereshkegal will have my soul shredded to the winds. _Looking down she checked her raiment's; _Wrist cuffs, gone. Arm bands next, then the necklace, sandals, breast plate, leather armor, and finally the skirt at the seventh gate, then I will be naked, and doomed._

Far ahead of her, and yet still too near to be a comfort, the second set of gates leading into the queen of the Underworld's domain beckoned, and she headed toward them exactly as had her own original deity.

--

"C'mon Dean," Mercy sat beside him, mopping his forehead with a cool cloth, her eyes drinking in the lines of his face, reading how time has marked him thus far, from the glittering few grays in his hair to the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes.

"What happened to you baby... how did you let someone hurt you like this?" she wondered softly while in the other bed Sam's deep and even breathing, peppered with the occasional grunt sounded hypnotically through the room. _How did you guys fall so far so fast? _her eyes slid out into the living room where the sidhe warriors were guarding the corpse, now on the couch, _Did you have something to do with this? How much of what Tamara's heard is true? What kind of curse did you bring down on these boys? Wasn't it enough, everything they've already been through? Everything they've lost? You gotta bring down some ancient curse on them? Put them in harms' way? Why? What's your angle?_ she wondered, _If you had anything to do with what's happening here, so help me God you're better off dead than to come back._

"You should've stayed with me after those zombie biker ghosts, I never would've let anyone hurt you," she caressed Dean's face and pressed her lips to his, "Open those eyes for me lover, c'mon..."

On the floor beside the couch Ajax whimpered in his sleep, and a small, strong, calloused hand stroked his chest while his eyes narrowed and his mouth frowned for the angry energies coming from the Champion and Chosen's room.

--

"Mmm?" Dean's arm closed around the warm curves beside him and a smile touched his lips as tiny movements worked to start him stretching from the toes up, he drew a deep breath and frowned faintly in his sleep as a different scent than the one he was expecting filled the back of his sinuses, _Well that's not right..._ he thought vaguely before drifting back down.

Mercy felt his arm tighten around her and smiled just before a hard poke hit the bottom of her foot.

She cracked her eyes open to find a scowling and apparently somewhat cranky Bobby glaring at her. A jerk of his head to the side swept away her hope for a little more time in Dean's arms and sleepily, she shuffled out of the room following her uncle into the kitchen where he started a pot of coffee brewing.

"How's he doin?" Bobby asked.

"He came around late in the night, that THING used him again... if it comes back again it might well kill him," she hissed angrily.

"How's Sam?" he asked.

"Fine why?"

"No wheezing? No coughing? How's his fever?" Bobby rocketed visibly growing angrier by the moment.

Mercy shrugged, "He's still got a bit of a wheeze but..."

"If you're gonna use the fact that you were pre-med a half a lifetime ago, as an excuse to get close to that boy or anyone else you'd better start pretending to give a damn about the one person he's got that's still ALIVE..." the hunter snarled quietly but with unmistakable anger.

Mercy leaned back, looking into the living room where the woman's body lay still on the couch continually guarded by the ever vigilant sidhe.

"Are you kidding?" she looked back to her uncle, "He had a thing for _her_? She's firewood..." she snipped as a warm hand dropped onto her shoulder.

"I wouldn't let Dean hear you say that," Sam frowned sliding past her and stuck a cup under the stream of coffee that was brewing.

"From what I can figure she's the one that got you guys into this mess in the first place!" Mercy contested.

"How'd you get that?" Sam asked rolling his head on his neck. He turned quickly as another spasm of deep coughs rocked him.

Bobby scowled at his niece, maneuvering the young man into a chair, "Siddown Sam..." he urged pressing his hand to his forehead, "Still hot... After you eat something you're going back to bed, this place is safer than any other on earth right now," he scowled at his niece and hitched his thumb toward the living room, "Thanks to that bit of 'firewood' out there!" then returned his attention to Sam, "and you need to take the time to recover. So does your brother."

Sam nodded weakly then met Mercy's eyes as she sat across from him, leaning forward, ready to hear him deny what she'd heard.

"Y'know what? I don't know what Tamara's heard, I don't know what you've heard, and I don't care..." Sam shook his head, "it's like the bullshit that came down after the gate was opened... where the hell were any of YOU when we were there trying to stop it? NOT there. Where were any of _you_ when the marauders' brother tortured them," he nodded out toward the front room, "using _them,_ their PAIN and its energy to breech an entire dimension and let those igigi into our world? I know where you _weren't_..." his chest caught and bent as he held back another round of coughing, his breath buzzing deep inside as well.

"Geez man... Bobby don't you have some cough medicine around here?" Mercy frowned and started rooting through the refrigerator.

"Got some whiskey..." he offered with a wink at Sam who smiled.

"It's a little early in the morning for that don't you think?" she sniped while digging deep into the back of the fridge where she found a small bottle of Nyquil. "This all you have?" she asked.

"Most likely," Bobby nodded.

Mercy shook the bottle and broke through the crust, "Looks like about two doses for you," she grabbed a cup off the rack and poured half the elixir into it then handed it to Sam, "Look, I may not have been there at those times Sam, but it doesn't change the fact that you guys didn't have all this crap in your lives until you met _her_! Am I right?" she held up her finger stopping Sam from interrupting, "AND let's not forget the most important point here Sam... She's DEAD. She freakin' committed suicide in front of all of us so whatever your brother might feel or have felt for her... she obviously didn't have the same feelings for him..."

Behind Sam, Bobby's expression twisted with disappointment in his niece. He shook his head with his eyes closed, remembering back, two summers ago when he'd been training Laura, helping her learn how to hunt while they took care of John until he came out of the coma. When Dean and Sam had walked into the house, and she showed up, the energy had been tangible, even John, as closed off as he was had felt it. He could still point to the spot in the far yard where Dean and Laura had kissed for the first time, where as they came together they'd been surrounded by blue white light that could've lit half a stadium at midnight.

Sam stood unsteadily and shambled past her, dropping his hand onto her shoulder, "You just go right on thinking that..." he shook his head holding onto the wall as he returned to the bedroom, passing a bleary eyed Tom and Shep in the process. In mid stride, Tom turned from the kitchen and followed him into the bedroom lending a hand to steady the young man, while Shep moved to the couch to check on Laura.

"Anything?" he asked while pressing his fingers to her throat, hoping to feel a pulse. _Man that's really freaky... no pulse but still warm... I wonder how they're doing that_.

The warrior shook his head, his expression sad and obviously worried.

"If she can she will, don't you worry," Shep grasped his shoulder, "Lemme get some coffee and if you want I'll keep watch for a while... y'all can stretch your legs a bit," he offered.

Mustard Seed shook his head, stood straight and tall, his expression firm.

"Alright I getcha... want something t'eat?" he asked and watched the warrior's eyes light up as his hand came up to his mouth and he mimed something familiar.

"An apple?" Shep asked rising as the sidhe male nodded with a smile.

--

Try as she might to slow her feet as she approached the second gate, it simply could not be done. Fear, as real in this spiritual state as it would have been if she'd had her mortal body, reminded her of what a pounding heart felt like. The acrid taste of its acid on the back of her tongue as she slid the arm bands off, purchasing her way through the gate just as Inanna had when the world was young, was its own reminder too.

She would reach each gate more quickly than the one before until she, like her battle maiden patron stood naked before the hideous goddess, _Why do I have to do this? Why did Inanna have to do this?_ she wondered as the gates swung closed behind her. She didn't notice but as she worked to recall the specifics of Inanna's journey into the underworld, and the animosity between her and Ereshkegal, her footsteps finally did seem to begin to slow.

--

"Mmm... she...smote... ...world..." Dean's head tossed to the side, "...too hot... gonna die...Sammy please... ungh help me... uh God..." he pressed the sheets and blankets from his body only to have Shep pull them back up again.

"Smote the world... smote the world..." Sam shook his head and as it all came pouring back to him, met Sheps' eyes, "Tiamat," he nodded but frowned, "Shep toss me my bag willya?" he asked rooting around through it as soon as it was in his hands.

He pulled his deep brown leather journal and opened the phonebook section he'd kept in tact, "What the hell was her name? Titschler?" a smile deepened his dimples, "Tilter, Esther Tilter...Hell what name did I use?" he wondered aloud and double checked the initials he'd marked next to her name.

After checking to see if he had a signal he dialed the number and sat back in bed with his eyes closed, still too tired to do anything more but to play a part he knew, in some ways, better than his own in this world.

"Esther?" he asked, "This is Sam Edwards... I don't know if you remember me or not but a couple years back you helped me out with some bronze Babylonian Cylinders..."

Shep watched the boys' smile broaden.

"That's right, the Turnbull estate... I am impressed..." he practically purred, "I'm in south Dakota right now... working in a private school... right... I was wondering if you could do a favor for me?" he covered the phone and barked out another series of coughs, "Excuse me... just a little cold... Well I was wondering if you might be willing to roll those cylinders and ship the pressings to me..." he smiled leaning back more carefully this time, "Well believe me there's nothing more that I'd like right now but even if I wasn't half a continent away I certainly wouldn't want to risk giving you this miserable cold..." he closed his eyes, "Mmmm absolutely..." he purred again, unable to look at Shep who was watching him, clearly impressed with just how much he'd picked up from his big brother over the years.

"Esther you are a Godsend... or would you rather I call you, 'Mizz Tilter'?" he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively then gave her the address. "Mmm the faster the better, I can't tell you how much it means to me...you can be sure of it... Thanks," he closed the phone, let the smile fall partway from his mouth until it was genuine again, and took a slow breath, hoping to keep himself from another coughing fit.

"Shep... Tiamat... she holds the cards... well the tablets," he smiled then swept a glance over his fevered big brother's twisted expression, "S'gonna be okay Dean, we'll get this figured out," he nodded before finally giving in to the effects of the Nyquil.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi


	19. Chapter 19

Dawn – chpt 19

by: sifi.

--

_The stone was warm beneath his feet as they walked and talked, he heard the voice he recognized as once having been his own, and felt his self turn, his arm around his woman's shoulders. _

"_I don't want you to do this Inanna... Ereshkegal let's no one return from the underworld, you will be NO exception..." he reminded her as they walked through the garden. The evening air around them perfumed with blooms at their peak as vines and tendrils seemed to strain toward the deific couple, almost as if seeking approval or appreciation. _

"_She is my sister, and with the death of her husband I have no choice my love... should I of all women show fear? Should I retreat from the road of no return?" she asked, there was no accusation in her voice, merely resignation. "You should have bestowed upon me her realm my lord," her hand stroked down his cheek, drawing his lips toward hers. _

"_You are ever hungry woman... Goddess of Battle, of the Heavens, even called upon by those who fear themselves lost to love... and more importantly than all of your status... of my heart... what more would you ask of me? Ask and I shall give it, if it is indeed mine to give," he grinned drawing his thumb down her cheek, passing it over her lips which snapped closed over the digit, her teeth grazing its edge, drawing a moan from him as his loins decided to stir. _

_She nodded, "Aye my love... For you, I am forever hungry, for your kiss I forever starve," she tasted his lips, her hand sliding beneath his tunic, "For your manhood I am forever wanting... your vessel to be filled," she grasped him under the fine cloth, his gasp drew her essence into himself and his rod sprang to life under her touch. _

"_My Goddess... my woman..." he pressed his mouth to her neck, his arms wrapped around her and he drove her to the garden wall, his fingers sliding beneath her skirt as her hand shoved aside his tunic. _

_Her legs closed around his waist as he drove himself deep into her. His mouth hovered over hers, drawing the breath of her life into him as she drew his essence into her, "For all those who have borne me sons and daughters..." he strained, his teeth snagging the skin of her neck, pulling as he thrust, clamping as he came, "... there is no other who holds my heart woman!" His teeth clenched, his rod pulsed over and over until breath itself eluded him as she took his seed deep into her, her body clasping at every jet he loosed. _

_Their mouths slightly parted, nearly touching, their breath mingling, their lives and love inseparable, their eyes met and finally so did their lips. _

"_My Lord, My King... listen closely and I shall bear you sons and daughters in numbers that will send you reeling! OUR children will build the future... we shall live through them my love... always and forever!" she pledged._

"_Teach me woman..." his teeth sunk into her shoulder, the taste of her blood an elixir he'd long become addicted to. _

_As he withdrew himself from her, glistening, she grinned and crouched, "a taste of you my love to hold me till my return..." she muttered closing her mouth over his still erect shaft, and plentiful head. She stroked him with her tongue, draining him with tantalizing sips, tasting him, believing that if anyone could save her from the destiny that stood before her, it was none other than him. Her husband, her God. _

_Her mouth descended upon him, drinking his essence as she had a thousand times before, her passion made him quake, her giving drove him to his knees, her want made him rise again, and her love made him whole. _

_In time they walked again through the gardens he'd commanded to life for her enjoyment. One by one she pointed out the herbs, "That she will kill me is certain my love, if in three days after the journey begins I fail to return; then if you desire my return, you must send the gallas to retrieve that which is left of my body. These are what will bring life back to me... as always, and only if you desire it my love. My King," she pressed a group of herbs into his palm, "My life or death is only for you my love, the choice is yours," she pressed her palms to his cheeks and drew him in._

"_With such knowledge why should you smile woman?" he asked despite the water from his own eyes. _

_She stroked his face, "For I alone, above all others have given you the son you know to be your king... all else... is for us, the world shall have its chosen, and in you, its champion."_

"_And in you, it's guardian... this sword has three blades..." _

--

"...yeah well from what that thing said," she tapped the notebook with her forefinger, "this is the part that's important somehow."

Ellen glanced between Mercy and Tamara, who sat on the opposite side of the table, "Mercy? How bad are the boys?"

The woman shook her head as an explosion vibrated through the floor from the kitchen out into the living room.

"We're okay..." Jo called as gray sooty smoke rolled out of the doorway.

"Dang woman a flake! a FLAKE of gold..." Shep's voice scowled.

"But it doesn't say how big a flake now does it?" Tom combated as the back door was opened and a breeze drew out the smoke.

"Well apparently that was just a bit too much now don't cha think?" Shep argued.

"Guys, guys!..." Jo interrupted, "Why don't we just ask one of the sidhe? I mean think about it, it's their spell, it's probably THEIR proportions right?"

"Well we need enough of this stuff for all of us... maybe even for a few others we might encounter on the way right? Well yer not gonna feed a dozen people with eight hot dogs if you get my drift... when you have a bigger crowd to feed you multiply the recipe!"

In the living room Ellen snickered.

"Why don't you go show 'em how it's done Ellen?" Tamara suggested grinning.

The woman shook her head with wide eyes, "Uh uh, not me... I blow up bean dip..." her eyes returned to Mercy, "So? The boys?"

The younger woman smiled tightly, "They'll be alright... as long as that son of bitch keeps his hooks out of Dean... once they get some solid rest and get their strength back, they should be fine... tell you though I'd love to get my hands on the bastard that tore him up like that," she growled.

"Don't you fret your head about it girl... the bitch met her end just right," Shep flopped into the chair near the sofa, his eyes fixed between Laura's body and a very agitated looking Mustard Seed, "What's the matter?" he asked the guard.

"The _bitch?_" she asked, "He let a woman tear him up like that Shep? Don't tell me he let _her_ do that?" she flipped her thumb at Laura's body.

"Have you gone off yer head girl?" Shep half demanded with a scowl as the sidhe grabbed his hand and placed it on her head which was markedly cooler than it had been over the last twenty four hours, "She's cooling down," he noted as the warrior nodded frowning, "I'm figuring it's not a good sign?" the warrior shook his head.

"It was a demon. We figure it was workin' for the marauder, that's probably how she got her hooks in him," he explained looking back over his shoulder.

Mercy nodded then motioned to the body on the couch, "Y'know it's a fact of reality here fellas, corpses cool... they reach room temperature, it's the way things go," her glance moved between Shep and the sidhe male whose lips curled back from his teeth in a snarl at the young woman, "Don't get mad at me I'm just telling you the facts of OUR world," she explained.

"Mercy you're about as subtle as a sledgehammer girl..." Shep shook his head.

--

Her hand reached up, her fingers settling at her throat where the necklace had lain only a few steps behind her, at the front of the third gates, and was now in the hands of the gallas there. _Oh no..._ she thought pressing her fingers into the divot of her neck where fear beat the flesh, _Oh God... I'm not ready for this..._ and her fingers trembled with the realization.

The further she moved down the road of no return, the deeper she penetrated Ereshkegal's underworld; the more cohesive her spiritual self became leaving behind the body she'd worn in the mortal world, the memory of physical responses were being carried with her.

Breath trembled into her, _I am going to be torn apart and I will only be able to wish for an end as it happens, and then I will finally die. Dean..._ she choked as her feet carried her toward the fourth gates, _I'll look for you first in my next life, I only never wanted to risk hurting you. I'd never leave you willingly... forgive me._

Darkness moved before her as her hands came away from her eyes taking with them the first evidence of her loss. As the shadow moved and grew, ascending toward the orange and black sky above, her breath caught in her throat at the terrible sight before her. The glistening serpentine fangs that dripped their venom, leaving it sizzling on the rock below, the center set of triple eyes blazing cold hatred at her as it stretched its onyx wings, each one spanning a solid ten feet from its root at the creature's back to its furthermost tip.

_Holy shit,_ she tilted her head upward, her eyes scanning back and forth among all three of its own for a moment before the God of Death took a step toward her. The details of its form screamed out its other-worldliness, _the divine number three, three faces, three eyes, three breasts..._ she couldn't help but see what was almost at eye level, _three really big, painful looking penises... or is it peni? Holy crap they're each as big as forearm... I hope Ereshkegal knows what to do with those..._

"If you're here for Ereshkegal... I don't mind waiting out here... you can go right on ahead of me if you want," she motioned toward the fourth set of gates.

Nergal beat his wings, his taloned hand grasped her by the waist and held her up so they were eyes to eyes. _Now I get what Fay Wray felt like... damn I don't even get to look like Jessica Lange... man that sucks... _The ground vibrated with the crushing weight of the God's stony footsteps as he turned, hauled back his arm and threw her across the expanse. _Oh the landing's gonna hurt..._ she knew as she impacted with the fourth set of gates, startling the gallas into turning their heads to see what had dared to try and breech their post.

From the ground she took catalog of her hurts where the friezes in the gates had left their imprint on her. In the distance, despite her blurred vision she watched the God raise his hand and point, and as he did so the gallas descended, talons tearing through the lacings of the bronze breastplate she wore as well as through the plate itself.

Rending heat clawed at her through the leather beneath, tearing her skin and loosing the memory of warm fluid as it flowed over her. _Am I supposed to be able to bleed here?_

--

A squeak came from Mustard Seed at the same time a whine slipped from Ajax. They rose, the sidhe climbed up the couch and crawled onto the body, staring at the marble-like face as the dog pawed at the arm.

"What's goin' on?" Jack motioned to the activity.

"They're not happy that's for sure," Gary shrugged his jacket on, watching the small warrior turn and seem to say something to the dog, but all the humans heard was the sound of water.

Ajax sat, his nose pointed upward, his throat stretched open as he called out a single long cry that sent shivers through all parties present and drew Bobby, Tom, Shep and Jo from the kitchen, and as the note ended, bleary eyed Sam and Dean shambled from their bedroom.

"Oh no..." Dean noted the look on the warriors' face and shambled stiffly across the room, "What's wrong?" he asked running his hand over her forehead and down her cheek, "She's so cold," he frowned, "She's moving deeper into the underworld isn't she? She can't resist the draw can she?" he asked already knowing the answer as the warrior shook his head.

"Dean what's going on?" Ellen asked moving to stand beside him.

He took a deep breath, looking around and noting all the eyes gazing at him, all holding the same question and looking to him for answers.

"Cernunnos is nearby isn't he?" he asked the warrior who nodded.

He shook his head, breathing hard and wiping at his running eyes, "I need a book on herbs..."

They watched the diminutive male dash to one of the shelves, grab out a book that was larger than himself and drop it open on the coffee table.

Dean nodded, his fingers running over the pages while, trying to match what he'd seen her place in his hand in his dream to the pictures that were there.

One by one he found them and asked, "Do you have this here?"

There were two they discovered that the sidhe did not have on hand, "If Cernunnos is nearby, then he has an entryway to either his own or Morrigan's grotto close by as well right?" he asked the warrior, who again, nodded.

"Good," he grasped the smaller man's shoulder, "Tell him what's happening, tell him something's drawing her in and bring back those herbs," he watched as the warrior seemed to shimmer out of existence.

When he was gone, Dean looked over his shoulder, "Sam fill up the tub with hot water and..." he double checked the book, "Lavender, Angelica, and some of the ash from the oak leaves... they'll have her living blood in it. Mercy get a couple of old sheets," as Mustard Seed, Sam, and Mercy did as they were told Dean wrapped his good arm under the torso of the body.

"Shep...gimme some help here..." he ordered as the older man shoved him out of the way and picked up the body.

"Where to?"

"The bedroom till everything's ready," Dean nodded then looked at the others, "We'll take care of this..." he assured everyone.

"Is there something we can do to help?"

"Is there anything we can do?" Tamara and Ellen asked together.

He shook his head, "Just..." he motioned toward the table where everyone seemed to be working on a different part of trying to translate what he'd written.

"Alright... if you need anything just holler," Ellen nodded.

He nodded curtly as Mercy returned with a couple sheets and accompanied him and Shep into the bedroom.

"What now?" she asked as Shep set the body down.

At her side Dean sat pulling off her gym shoes and socks, "Get these clothes off her..." he instructed, "then wrap her in the sheet," he left them to do as he said and moved into the bathroom where Sam had the hot water running and was peeling off lavender and angelica into it.

Jo returned from the shed a moment later carefully carrying the tray that held the oak leaf ashes and handed it to him, "What's this gonna do?" she asked.

"Thanks Jo," Dean smiled tightly, taking the tray from her, and adding its contents to the water, "The leaves were soaked with her blood when she was still alive, it's a connection to this world..."

"The oak and angelica act as protectants... what about the lavender?" she asked, beginning to understand.

"Preservative," Sam explained as the tub filled with steaming water.

"That's not possible Shep!" they heard through the wall.

All three exchanged looks before Dean dashed to the bedroom, "What's not possible?" he asked with Sam behind him, and Jo at his side.

"Corpses don't bleed Dean!" Mercy argued angrily pointing to patches of blood that were bright red and soaking through the sheet they had wrapped around her, "There's no pulse, no heartbeat, no respiration, she's almost room temperature now and despite being dead as a freakin' doornail... bleeding!" she shook her head as Shep swept the body into his arms and made for the bathroom with the others following behind, "I wish I had the equipment for an EEG right now... I'd love to see if there's brainwave activity..."

Jo grabbed the woman's arm, "Can't you show just a little sensitivity here?" she asked quietly and motioned to the group in the bathroom, "It's tearing him up... whether she's gone for good or not, if you really give a damn you'll help him, no matter what it means trying..."

"Look I know you've had your little schoolgirl crush on him, and that's great... but I'm a woman of science Jo, and what's happening here just isn't empirically possible..."

"What? What isn't empirically possible? That people can come back from the dead? That there's an army of extradimensional entities waging war on both us and our own dimensions' demons... which in the world of science aren't supposed to exist? Or that there are ghosts, and poltergeists and werewolves, and vampires... and all manner of creatures that again, according to _science_ aren't supposed to exist... and hey let's talk about the ancient gods... you know in particular the one that wants to destroy an entire universe because it can't have it for a _chew_ toy... what part of ANY of hunting is based in quantifiable, replicable, empirical science Mercy?" her voice had grown in volume until she was nearly yelling at the older woman, all eyes, from those in the bathroom and kitchen to those in the living room had turned to the two women.

Such was the surprising distraction caused by the two women that it wasn't until the two newcomers entered the living room proper that anyone noticed them. One of them stood about 5'10" and wore only a pair of brown corduroy pants. His body was covered in dark brown, almost black curls, and his hair was equally full and curly. His companion in contrast stood at 6' 6" and was able to meet the youngest Winchester eye to eye. His body was nearly copper in color and was hairless. He wore only a skirt of linen bound around his hips, and his eyes blazed and odd mix of green-gold, but it was the vertical pupils that gave away his identity.

As the two men crossed the front room the assembled hunters fell silent and opened a pathway.

The shorter man led the taller one toward the bathroom, everyone except Sam and Dean slid past them out into the living room where they stood in curious silence, the burgeoning argument between the two women already forgotten.

As the tall copper man approached him, Sam's eyes locked onto his, and he stumbled backward reflexively, tripping over his own feet as Dean stepped protectively in front of him, both of them knowing full well who these two men were.

"Why is he here?" Dean asked motioning to Anunnaki.

"My vision was incomplete... obscured by the veil..." the king of the igigi nodded at Sam.

The young Winchester stood up straight, pushing himself upright from the wall recognizing the voice as his fear subsided, "You?" he asked, his brow twisting, "You pointed the way out for me... you let down the wall..."

The ancient being smiled, "I merely pointed the way, it was you who broke down the wall on your own.

At the tub the god of fertility and rebirth crouched beside Dean and pressed several of the herbs he'd requested into his hand, together they added the rest of them to the water, "She would have had more power to return on her own if she'd waited..." he glanced at the elder hunter, taking in the extent of his injuries, "Nergal is... angry," he swept the last crumbs of the herbs from his hands then gently grasped Dean's chin, "You have suffered," he smiled sadly while looking deep into those green eyes, experiencing and witnessing first hand every travesty that had been perpetrated on the young human, his eyes leaking in sympathy.

"We all have..." Dean nodded between Sam and Laura too, "Can you do anything to help her? Can you bring her back?" he asked fearfully.

Reluctantly the embodied deity shook his head, "I can't."

"But if all this is the same for her as it was for Inanna, and the parallels are for us," Sam indicated himself and Dean, "and OUR patrons, then the lore says Enki himself had brought Inanna back..." he half argued.

Cernunnos smiled benignly, his hand cradling Dean's face as he reached for Sam and did the same, "So much strife for my poor humans," he sighed with a nod before turning to Anunnaki and nodding, "It's time."

The copper man, with his back filling the doorway so none but them could see, held up a closed fist then unfolded his fingers. A tiny white darting light seemed to zip up from his palm, the boys tried to track it around the room, wondering what it was but lost sight of it quickly just before Dean felt a faint pinch in the neck near the shoulder much like a mosquito bite.

With a faint smile the two other-worldly beings looked at one another then at the boys, "I hope it is not too late to help," Anunnaki told Cernunnos as they turned in unison, stepping from the bathroom and moving back through the house toward the rear door.

"What was that!?" Dean asked.

"What'd you do?" Sam shambled after them.

They chased the two men through the house and out into the back yard, "Cernunnos!" Sam barked as finally they turned.

"What did he do to my brother!?" he demanded.

"He has taken his gift," the woodland god shrugged.

"What? What gift? Whaddyou mean?" Dean huffed trying to rub away some of the soreness in his legs as a darting gray figure made him duck reflexively, "What the hell!? Sam? Do you see that?" he asked.

"It's just an igigi..." he shook his head then looked between his brother, Cernunnos, and Anunnaki, "You made him able to see them?" he asked.

"It is much more difficult to fight that which you cannot see..." the creature that had once used Dean to try and kill Sam, explained.

"Did you do that to me too?" Sam asked.

Cernunnos grinned, "No, that was the emissary... time was short, her heart was full of fear for you..." he looked at Dean too, "Both."

"What?" they asked together.

"She's like Dean, she's one of the ones they just can't feed on..." he thought back, remembering the sensation of being over crowded inside his own body, the feel of her legs wrapped around his hips, her mouth pressed to his forcing a hot thick bloody mix between his lips, and not letting go until he swallowed it down, and even then, the sense that something was chased out of him, it was the same feeling of spinney sudden emptiness that had come when Meg was finally forced out from inside his skin. That was when she'd taken the demon into herself, pulling it from his body so he could return safely.

"She shared with me that gift at the same time she enabled me to see them didn't she?" he surmised.

Anunnaki nodded, "From the moment Nergal's brothers priests took you, the igigi had been feeding on your guilt, your pain, growing it for their needs... they had almost managed to drive you from this world... then all would have been lost," he explained.

"The gun... when I almost..." he nodded swallowing hard, remembering the feel of the metal under his chin, the vacuous crushing despair that he was certain had left huge canon sized holes in his heart and soul.

"She gave me her protection?" Sam asked.

"Shared it," Cernunnos nodded.

"What about Dean?"

"Since he was a child he's been safe from them, but now he can see."

"And Laura?" Dean asked.

Cernunnos hung his head and sighed, "Ereshkegal let's none escape her realm once the seventh gate is closed behind them."

--

tbc.

Please R&R

Thanks.

sifi.


	20. Chapter 20

Dawn – chpt 20.

by: sifi.

--

_Please..._ she whimpered just before the stony foot crushed her body into the ground pressing air from her, leaving behind cracking, dry, splintering feelings and wet gurgles in her chest.

Blood trickled from her mouth as things deep inside were pulverized beneath the weight of the god that stood upon her, _Is this better than being torn apart?_ she wondered as a voice called from behind the opening sixth set of gates.

"Do not interfere Nergal!" came a voice from only the vaguest of shapes outlined by shadows.

The weight released and the trickle out her mouth and nose became a stream as the gallas descended, their talons slicing into her calves as they tore the sandals from her feet leaving her clad in her final garment, the skirt that would be surrendered at the seventh gate.

_No... wait, I've changed my mind..._ she almost thought as the talons sunk through the muscle of her leg and she was dragged through the shadowy opening, the doors swinging silently closed behind her while amongst themselves, and led by their queen, the sound of laughter rang mockingly in her ears.

--

"Dean?"

"S'up Sam?" he asked without taking his eyes from the woman in the tub.

After they'd drained it, Shep and Tom wrapped her into the second sheet per Dean's instruction then left him with her.

"Esther sent the pressings out this morning, according to the tracking number we should have them late this afternoon," he said softy while closing the door and sitting on the edge of the tub, "Do you have any idea what's going on?" he asked, his mouth bowed down sternly, his brows furrowed and his movements tight, betraying the completeness of his anger.

"Do you know the legend of Inanna's journey to the underworld Sam?" he asked.

Slowly the younger man nodded, "Yeah."

Dean turned his head and met his brothers' eyes, "I'm not Enki. I can't save her."

"But you _have_ been Dean, if we can figure out how to awaken Tiamat, and if we can get her to let us use the tablets, and if we can decipher them... maybe we can save her too," the youngest Winchester offered.

"Tomorrow is the third day, if we don't get the veil down before then..." he shook his head.

"I know, she'll probably never be able to return, but if we let it collapse before we're ready for everyone to go their way, then ... _he_ ...can find us...and this..." he motioned to the body, "will have been a waste..."

From the tub came the sound of several cracks, almost like tree branches, both men looked at each other horrified as blood sprayed out of the body's mouth and nose in a small vivid jet before flowing in a scarlet trickle. They kept watching, wondering if she was fighting her way back, wondering just what exactly was going on as stripes of red seeped up from where the sheets were bound around her legs as if something were clawing her.

Dean lowered himself to his knees, his fingers pressing at her throat despite his instincts telling him it was a futile gesture. Throwing a look over his shoulder at his little brother, he shook his head then returned to sitting on the toilet.

"As much as I hate to admit it Mercy has a point Dean, how can she be bleeding if her body's dead?" Sam asked quietly.

"All she wanted was..." he stopped, checked his breathing and swallowed hard, re-building every wall he'd ever had, repairing them one by one with superhuman speed, every wall, every door, _severing_ every _connection _he'd been able to make; and the youngest Winchester was almost certain it was because of the security his brother had never felt anywhere but in the arms of the woman whose body now lay in a tub. If it hadn't been for what she'd shown him; Sam wondered if Dean would have ever let anyone, other than himself, in.

"I don't know," he shook his head, "Why are you so angry Sam?" he asked scrubbing his face with his right hand and the fingertips of his left, "I mean, I know why _I'm_ angry, but why are you? Why should it matter to you? You've never been a fan of either of them."

_But I've always been a fan of yours Dean. _"Mercy's not good for you, she never has been," he half smiled, "And yeah, it took me a while to warm up to Laura, but I did..." Sam admitted with a nod.

Dean was defense incarnate, and Sam wanted to scream, grab him by the shirtfront, slam him into the wall and scream into his face that SHE wouldn't want this for him. That the one person outside their twisted and cursed blood line who actually had come to mean something to his big brother, would cry and scream and rail at him for shutting himself down. And yet he knew she would also understand. And in the shadows of his brothers' tortured psyche, his tormented soul, somehow, that one person would find a way to let him lay his head upon her lap. Her fingers would twine in his hair, and her need to give would fill not only Johns' eldest, but through him, his youngest as well.

There was nothing she would give to Dean, save the physical that she would not also give to Sam. And over time Sam had to admit that it was that devotion to _him_, to the one person Dean loved above all others, and her literally thoughtless understanding that no ONE and no THING stood above Sam in Dean Winchesters' world; that had finally allowed him to accept and begin to trust her.

"Dean this isn't the time or the place..."

"Then _when _Sam? If not now..." he turned his face away from his brother and bit his bottom lip harshly, "Today? Here? Now? Now is all we have left for sure. So when else can I ask?"

"Okay," Sam nodded seeing his brothers' point all too vividly, "You want to know why I'm angry? I _hate_ this Dean, I HATE this with _such_ a passion that YOU might actually give me credit for being a man!"

He motioned to the tub first then at the door, "I hate the fact that the ONE person who was there with us, who's saved both our lives, on more than one occasion, without... _literally_ without regard for her own is a freaking corpse!

I hate the fact that it feels like the one person who never wanted anything but to... she never wanted..." he breathed and nodded, "I get it okay? There was too much inside and she needed a couple of empty, piss poor sad sacks like us who could receive what she had to give... okay? I get it.

And I hate that... things went the way they did, and that she had so much fear, and I'm sorry that she loved you loved US, so much that she wanted to protect us as much as she could... and that it meant THIS," he pointed to the tub.

"I'm sorry Azazel did what he did and that he seemed to have set this whole thing in motion Dean... if he hadn't... and..." Sam shook his head, his eyes full and glassy, "And I'm sorry it had to be me Dean, cause if it wasn't me then it wouldn't be YOU either! And," he sighed, casting his eyes downward to the floor, "and ... I'm _really_ sorry, but I'm sorry I was ever freaking born!" he blurted without really meaning to.

"Wha...?" Dean lurched to his feet grasping his little brother by the neck, Polaroid memories of moments of their lives, all the moments Dean might not have been able to move through if it weren't for having Sam in them flicked through his mind.

Without someone he could love, someone willing and needing what he had to offer; without a willing recipient of all the caring he could never show their father, that he could never show another human being for fear of being ridiculed as weak, for everything he had inside; without someone to give it all to, he couldn't have lived.

"Sam..." he pressed their foreheads together wrapping his casted arm around his baby, his brother; his boy, his king.

"Don't you say that Sam... don't you EVER say that!" he pressed Sam's head to the crook of his neck and suffered the feel of his breath shuddering in his chest, "You're the best thing that ever happened to me Sam... Don't you _ever_ say that..." he breathed and wasn't sure if he uttered the next aloud, "You're the reason that saw'd off never made it to my mouth..."

Neither man cared how long they stood there, a different kind of Castor and Pollux in a different kind of Gemini embrace, each man needing the other, a simple circle of arms, the sharing of breath, and a synching of heart beats working to gain the attention of a universe in peril.

Dean breathed, the barest hint of voice in his sigh as he looked into the sapphire blue Sam's eyes always turned when he was near tears. Stepping back with a nod and a deep breath, Dean squeezed his little brother's shoulder, "Gary and Jack putting the scaffolding back together for the pyre?" he nearly whispered.

Wordless Sam nodded.

With another nod Dean asked, "What do you think's gonna happen with the demons?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, I have a feeling it's not going to be easy," Sam admitted.

"Have you been working on it?"

"Yeah, we know there are five devil's gates in North America, and that Alana Stebbe's cult members all were performing the same kind of stuff on other folks that they were on you and Laura, thing of it is we have no way of knowing if barriers were cracked at each of those points or if the one WE were at is the only one that they succeeded in opening," he sighed.

"Because they had you?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head, "Not just me. Because they had all three of us, you've heard it as often as I have, I'm the chosen one, you're the champion... and Laura has a direct line to a god. That connection was... obviously... powerful enough for someone who knew how to use it, to get what they wanted."

Dean nodded, "So... what're you going do with your army General Sammy?"

The youngest Winchester sighed, "Track down the members of the Cult of Ninurta and kill them before Nergal can get them under his influence and use them to bust a hole into our dimension. From what Laura told us about the downfall of the sidhe universe, if he can make a big enough hole in the fabric of our space-time and sustain it long enough for it to take hold, we'll have already lost no matter what else we may do," Sam frowned.

"So this is where we start ordering the deaths of innocents huh?" Dean chewed on his lower lip, his windowpane eyes full of pure sorrow, "When do we become the demons then Sam?"

The young hunter shrugged, "I don't know Dean. But if they've done to people what was done to you and Laura, they're no more innocent than anything else we hunt," he looked at his brother reading his expression expertly, "I know," he conceded, "even so, our souls are a small price to pay to keep this universe expanding don't you think?"

Slowly Dean nodded, his hand sweeping a shank of hair off the eyes of the body.

"You want me to make the call?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head, "No, if they're gonna be my army, least I can do is make a phone call."

"Sam?" Dean rose stiffly.

"Yeah?"

"Whatever happens, I'm not gonna let anything happen t'you."

Sam nodded once, no one else on earth could understand the comfort his big brothers' words had just brought him or why, as they left the bathroom closing the door behind them.

--

A cough sputtered out of her lungs bringing with it blood, phlegm and tissue bits.

Amid the somehow metallic sound of broken body bits being hacked up, very much like The Tin man hacking up a hoagie full of metal screws, birdsong made its self heard within and perhaps even above the din.

"Easy there... it's okay... just let it out sweetheart, it's okay," a warm gentle voice accompanied the warm strong arm around her, keeping her from face-planting in the richly fragrant soil.

"Dean?" she asked through a stringy glut of blood and mucous, "S'not real... you're alive at Bobby's... I'm in the underworld... I'm waiting to get torn apart..."

"Yeah," he nodded, stroking her hair from her sweat covered face, "Yeah you're right, except for the whole me not being here thing..." he smirked wiping her mouth clean with the back of his hand, "Not that I don't like it but you're nearly nekked again..." he smiled softly.

Her eyes raked him up and down, taking in the fact that he was naked to his boxers and as half of her mouth cocked upward in a smirk he was all too familiar with, so too did her eyebrow arch expectantly.

"S'cuse me?" she asked shaking her head and fixing her gaze on everything around them, from the towering green trees to the flower filled meadows to the far off oceanic vista. "Dean?" she looked at him, "Tell me you're not dead, tell me you and Sam, and Bobby and everyone... tell me please... tell me he didn't..."

Dean shrugged, "I don't know," he wiped her hair from her face, "Jo and Gary were getting the frames ready to sand cast the cylinder pressings, Bobby was melting some bronze," he shook his head, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed, "and Sam was working on deciphering the notes... " he swallowed hard, "That's all I got right now... I remember something shaking..." his breathing came short and hard, "I promised him I wouldn't let anything happen to him, I have to find Sam..."

"Where were you when...you know?" she asked pressing her hand to his cheek, "You said Sam was in the living room right? Is that where you saw him last? Did you see what happened to him?"

He frowned clearly confused, "No, I don't know... I have to find him." he breathed shaking his head, "Have _you_ seen him?" he asked suddenly curious, "Has he been here?"

"No, I don't know," she shook her head, "I was almost at the seventh gate..."

"Okay, okay," he stroked her hair helping her to her feet, "You can't go through there, I need your help, we gotta find Sam, then we'll go together, the three of us okay?" he looked around, "If he's here he won't be far, we gotta find him," he gazed into her eyes, his forefinger under her chin, his expression almost pleading.

"Of course," she nodded cupping his face, drawing him in, gently taking his lips to her own, "We'll figure it out together..." she asked, her gaze guiding his around the verdant landscape.

"Nothing looks familiar..." he shook his head, "I don't know."

"Okay sweetie it's okay, which direction did you come from?" she asked wondering where this had all come from when the last she recalled was being tossed over the hot rocky terrain of the underworld, toward the final set of doors she had to pass through, _This is like... Tir na nog... one does not get to the land of the young without passing through death... I haven't gone through the seventh gate... I can't get to Ana without going through the seventh gate... I have to go! _she stopped, her breath catching in her broken chest, _No, I have to help Dean find Sam. I have to save my boys, I have to save them first..._

He looked over his shoulder toward a small cluster of trees, "I think back there but I really don't know..." he turned leading her back with him, "...I heard you... then here I am," together they picked up the pace, jogging across the green expanse, the sun shining golden over them.

--

From the living room window Sam watched Tamara and Jack wander around outside, each of them holding a small glass vial partially filled with a viscous smoky looking liquid. His gaze quickly returned to the sky and the igigi that didn't seem to know quite what they were looking for as the humans walked around them. Sam had remained inside knowing full well that the hunters would be watching him to see where he was looking rather than testing the concoction the sidhe had helped them whip up. The mixture was literally a gift from them, Cernunnos and Anunnaki, and was supposed to warn of the presence of the igigi. In dim light or darkness it appeared like a faint negative so one could see which way the demon essence was being repelled, and thanks to that essence the piggish creatures tended to overlook the humans nearby in the hopes of a demonic feast.

"_It's only gonna be any good at close range, probably within a matter of a couple yards, but at least it's something,"_ Sam had explained, _I wish we could trust the demons, they should be here by morning._ A wave of dizziness rocked the young Winchester, his legs splayed out from under him, landing him unceremoniously on the couch with a faint thud.

"Sam?" Ellen called from the kitchen, her head came round the corner followed quickly by the rest of her as she crossed to the young man's side, "Sam? What's the matter sweetie?" she sat beside him draping an arm across his strong broad back, humid heat rolling off of him as she pressed her hand to his cheek, "God you're burning up honey... c'mon now back t' bed with you," she draped his good arm over her shoulders and helped him, wobbling to his feet.

"Ellen?" he grunted shaking his head, trying to clear the cotton from it, but he was less steady than either of them thought and the faint side to side motion overbalanced the tall man.

"Dean!" Ellen called sharply, her hands fumbling, trying to keep the young man upright or to help him gently down.

"Yep?" Dean's face appeared as the bedroom door opened, "Sam? Sammy!?" he dashed from the room, his appearance forcing Ellen's jaw wide in shock.

"Ellen what happened?" he asked lowering himself to his knees beside his baby brother, who lay, trembling and looking as if he was trying to maintain consciousness, "Sam? C'mon dude talk to me..." he tapped at the young man's flame red cheeks.

"D..n..." he croaked as a tremor shook him and his eyes rolled back into his skull.

"No Sam, c'mon now... stay with me, stay here..." he glanced at Ellen, "Ellen! what happened?"

Her eyes had been busy taking in the dozens of patches of stitching and barely less than black bruises on the young man's chest, _That's downright clever_ the thought flitted briefly through her mind at the sight of his tattoo before the copious injuries came glaring back at her, _My God son, what happened to you? _she wondered and gave a quick shake of her head, "I don't know, he just started to go down, his fever's up again."

"Yeah I can feel that..." he crouched at his brother's legs, "Help me..." he grasped the young man's long limbs, feeling them quaking in his grip while Ellen took hold of his torso.

Together they carried him into the bedroom and gently laid him down.

"Cool cloths," Dean ordered. He slid his fingers over his brothers' sweat peppered brow and pried his eyes open one by one as his back arched and strangled gurgles churned in the back of his throat while his hands flailed against the mattress.

"Sam? Oh God Sammy please..." Dean gasped feeling his heartbeat in his throat, adrenaline pouring through his system, sweat beading over his skin he shouted, "Ellen go get Mercy!"

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	21. Chapter 21

Dawn – chpt 21.

by: sifi.

--

"Sam... C'mon Sammy don't do this little brother please..." he choked, pressing gently down on the young man's chest with his left arm while trying to cradle his head in his right.

Sweat soaked the younger brother, his jaw clenched, teeth snapping together, the veins of his neck and face stood out in sharp relief and air stuttered into and out of him like a misfiring engine. Dean watched as Sam's hands flailed, one of them picking at his back pocket until his wallet slid out onto the floor. A second later he drew a smoother breath, his eyes rolling down just a little and his seizing seemed to take a break.

"Sammy?" Dean breathed cupping the young mans' face a split second before an alto scream tore the air and his chest bowed backward once more. This time though, as he did, a drop of blood seeped up from under his shirt high on the left side of his chest.

"DEAN!" he screamed arching backward, "God... Dean! Help me!" he cried.

Dean's eyes filled and his fingers clawed at Sam's shirt where the tiny drop was spreading with horrific speed.

_No! No, no, no, not again, I won't lose you again..._"Sam talk t'me!" he urged tearing through the fabric, popping the buttons.

He clasped his fingers around the neck of his little brothers' t-shirt and gave a sharp tug, tearing through the base of the 'v' so he could see what was going on, why he was bleeding.

"Dean?" Shep asked as he and Tom burst into the room.

"Oh God... Sam? Sammy? C'mon little man..." Tom dropped to his knees at the head of the bed, his hand stroking Sam's dripping hair off his face, watching as were Dean and Shep an impossibility happening.

On the palm sized area of his chest, where he and Dean both had the same protective seals tattooed not long after Sam had been possessed by the Meg demon, it was as if a sharp blade had incised the skin around it and the edges were starting to peel.

"Dean... please..." Sam whimpered, his hand flailed grasping at his brothers' naked chest, his fingers brushed the ink and smoke arose at the contact.

"What the hell..." Shep uttered as behind them the doorway filled up with hunters.

"Please..." Sam gasped turning oily yellow eyes on his big brother.

"Sammy..." Dean's blood turned to ice and he found he could barely breathe as those eyes looked into him.

"Alright out, everybody get out!" Shep leaped to his feet turning the hunters away before any of them could see anything.

"Dean sent for me!" Mercy pushed back.

"OUT!" the nearly panicked man pushed them all from the room before slamming the door shut and throwing the lock.

"Holy shit Dean... what the hell's going on? What the hell does this mean?" he asked breathlessly, his eyes bulging wide with fear.

"S'okay Sammy, come on little man you can fight this okay? Fight it for us Sam, it's gonna be okay, we're gonna take care of you..." Tommy continued to soothe in a trembling voice while stroking the boys' hair from his face even as tears dripped from his chin.

A second later the knob turned and Bobby walked in, almost turned back by a visibly frightened Shep.

"What's goin' on?" he asked closing and re-locking the door.

"Father!" Sam cried, twisting himself on the bed while his hand reached out toward Dean.

"Holy mother of God Dean... what the hell?" Bobby asked stunned cold by the sight of Sam's eyes. _Wasn't bad enough when they went black a couple years ago, what the hell's goin' on? Dean KILLED that yellow eyed bastard! and How the hell's it inside the ward let alone the boy! _he frowned eyeing the curling edges around the seal that should have never allowed him to be possessed again in the first place.

Deep in the heart of the oily yellow center a brightness seemed to flicker, and the edges of the flap of skin that held the tattoo started to smolder.

"No... no, no, no, NOOOOO!" he screamed straining against the hands of their friends that would have held him down.

"Sam..." Dean whispered helplessly just before he took flight as did Tom, Shep, and Bobby, all four of them slammed into walls, held hard and firm as Sam turned Azazel's eyes on them.

Sam's body sat up at the edge of the bed panting, his hand pressed down on the mutilated skin of his chest, seeming to want to keep the protective symbol exactly where it was, it's presence perhaps acting in the same manner as a binding link, keeping whatever bit of his essence that he'd seeded Sam with, firmly rooted inside.

"No!" A different voice barked from Sam's mouth while his fingertips curled under the edge of the cut and his eyes shifted again, glowing copper, "Your part is done here! Leave him!" came a voice layered over Sam's that something deep inside Dean recognized.

His jaw dropped as two entities fought for dominion within his brother.

When once again those yellow eyes lingered longer than the copper color, and their gaze turned to him, his fear and fury could no longer be held back, "Don't you touch him! So help me God GET OUT OF HIM!"

The yellow seemed to almost lock into place as Sam's mouth twisted in a cruel smile, "NO! _I'm_ the one who can protect him, haven't I always? Haven't _I always_ taken care of _our_ Sammy?" Sam's body stalked across the room, his blood covered hand grasped his big brother by the chin, "My good right hand Dean, you'll sit right beside me..."

"He's MINE!" Dean hollered enough to fill his entire body with quaking fury before he gained control of himself, "Get out of my brother you yellow eyed son of a bitch! I KILLED YOU!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

"Hah!" he spat, "...held back by nothing more than a shadow...how's daddy's little blunt instrument? Still workin' through those issues huh?" he leaned in, closely, "I watched you kill your girlfriend... that took bigger balls than I thought you had... nice job by the way..."

"Get out of my brother and go straight back to hell you son of a bitch," Dean snarled.

"Now is that any way to talk to your once and future king?" he sneered pressing one hand over Dean's ink while his other drew out Sam's pocket knife and opened it up.

"What the hell... oh no you don't c'mon Sammy fight this son of a bitch!" he ground as the gleaming edge was brought up against his skin while the voices of their friends shouted protestations that were sure to have been heard outside the bedroom door. _Why aren't they busting it down? Why aren't they coming, they gotta know something's waaaaaay wrong..._ he wondered watching the blade sink into the first layers of the flesh of his chest.

"Sammy! Don't you let it do this!" he ground his teeth, his good arm slowly starting to peel away from the wall as his brothers' eyes flickered momentarily copper then blue-green for a long heartbeat that bent his features in pain. "C'mon Sam fight it!" Dean urged while he slid down the wall onto his own feet, as did the other three men in the room, and his hand grasped his baby brother at the neck and shoulder.

On the floor of the room in a shadow a small figure shimmered in, his face betraying the full extent of his distress. An instant later he was gone and Dean hoped he was the only one to have seen him.

"Dean, I can't..." Sam leaned forward, exhausted, dripping wet and barely able to stand with the knife hanging limply from his hand as his big brother drew him in.

"Yes you can! YES you CAN Sam!" he pushed himself away from the wall and grasped his baby by the face, "You can do this... you don't need his protection anymore! You don't... you have to make it go, PUSH it out!"

"I won't let him!" the yellow eyes were back again, "Sam has a job to do and I'm going to damn well see that he does it! YOU"RE the one we don't need anymore!" he sneered as Dean shot across the room and through the window landing somewhere outside with a frighteningly final sounding 'whump'.

"Dean!" Sam cried, his eyes flashing copper once again as his fingers poked and pried and tore at the flap of flesh on his chest bathing the room in screams and his hand and arm in blood as he pulled and worked the patch of skin from his body.

"Dean..." he panted falling to his knees with a gaping circular wound over his chest. His breath came shaky as his eyes flared copper and their friends were finally, fully released from the wall watching as a billow of demon dust was forced from the haven of his body.

He knew the others couldn't see it but he was filled with warm relief when the igigi descended playing cat and mouse with the last bit of Azazel as it tried to escape them and eventually lost.

"Go get Dean I'll stay here with him," Tom directed grasping the boy to his chest, pressing Sam's shirts to the gaping wound as he hefted him onto the bed.

"No... Dean, oh God..." Sam shoved Tom's hand away and tried to push himself to his feet.

"What the hell happened?" Ellen, Mercy and Jo were already nearing the door as Sam lurched out into the living room with Tom holding him up.

"Mercy get outside Dean went through the window," Tom ordered, then turned his questioning gaze on the other two women, as Bobby's niece did as directed. "None of you heard any of that?"

"All we heard was glass shatter... guess it was the window..." Ellen wrapped her arm around Sam's other side while Jo dashed out the back to see if she could be of help, "Sam what did you do honey? Where's all this blood coming from?" she asked as he stumbled almost out of their grip.

"Set him down..." Tom nodded to one of the chairs.

"Alright little man, I hafta take a look here alright?" he crouched in front of the dazed Sam.

"Dean..." he nodded barely able to lift his head but as he did his gaze rose, his eyes blazed luminous copper and as Tom pulled back the layers of cloth from his chest steeling himself for the sight of a palm sized patch of skin missing, he felt the wind sucked out of him.

Beneath the blood Sam's chest was almost pristine, marred only by the presence of the protective seal Tom had just watched him tear from his body, and the remnants of the bullet hole.

"Oh my God Tom... what's goin' on?" Ellen barely breathed as Sam's glowing almost orange colored gaze fell on her. Haltingly, her hand reached out to cradle his face.

"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you," Tom muttered.

"Try me," she breathed as outside voices came through the back door, the sound of a woman crying chief among them.

"Dean..." Sam winced before his face softened.

"Well I'm not entirely sure but I think the boy just embraced his past," Tom nodded as Sam's eyes returned to their normal blue-green before sliding closed as his body slid from the chair, coming to rest on the floor, sandwiched between Tom and Ellen.

--

"Oh my God... Dean? Dean? Come on boy talk t'me..." Shep's breath hitched, his tear filled eyes meeting Bobby's already overflowing ones.

"No, no... no no no please..." he breathed watching the line of blood slide from the young man's mouth, across his cheek to pool onto the ground, his hands clamped around the hollow end of a chunk of pipe he'd landed on that now ran through his torso.

"Dean?" Shep breathed shakily, kneeling at his side, his hands cradling the young hunters' face, his green eyes just as clear and crystalline as they'd been when he first met the kid over twenty years ago.

"Sh...p," he breathed then cast his glance to Bobby and smiled, "Sza...am..."

Both men knew exactly what he wanted and nodded as Mercy, and Jo burst out into the back yard.

"We will... you just hold on there boy, don't you dare go anywhere..." Bobby threatened.

"Holy hell..." Mercy breathed, finally having a chance to take in the damage she'd felt beneath his t-shirt.

"Szzam..." Dean breathed, his lips curling faintly upward as his right hand clamped around the pipe and before anyone realized what he was doing, or was even capable of doing, he cast the chunk of metal aside and lay bleeding.

"No! Damnit!" Mercy cursed placing her hands on either side of the gaping hole, grateful that for whatever reason he was dressed only in boxers, "You stupid son of a bitch what'd you do that for!? You're not supposed to take something out!..." tears flowed down her face, "You moron! Somebody fucking call 911!" She looked around as Dean's hand fell to hers and their eyes met, "You stupid idiot Dean..." she leaned forward, even as his hand cupped her cheek and held her back.

Bobby, Shep and Jo watched as he touched the woman's face. Her concentration was focused on his wound so she didn't see the faint glowing begin in the back depths of his pupils, and she didn't see the pink of copper light burst through to overtake the green, but the others did.

"Mmm... szzon... k'ng..." he sighed with a faint smile before his eyes closed and his head fell to the side.

--

Dean's stride slowed to half on the grassy plain and his face betrayed his confusion.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh God... Oh GOD!..." he breathed sharply and bent over grasping his knees. The last time he'd felt this kind of panic was when that bitch had his car towed.

"Dean?"

"Sam... it's Sammy... oh God he's possessed... Yellow eyes is IN him!" he breathed, clutching at his chest, his eyes pleading.

_Of course there's part of him in Sam, he opened the channels for his gifts..._ she thought for a moment, confused as to why this would bother him NOW, _Wait... wait..._

"Wait what did you say? Sam's possessed? That's not possible Dean and you know it..." but even as she denied the possibility her voice trailed off.

"Yes," he nodded meeting her eyes, "It's possible..."

"Yeah," she agreed, "It's part of him... if it's been,"

"Dormant," Dean nodded, "Sam was fi..." he waved his hand, "Marduk... was..." he stopped again, "Whoever he is now..."

"He's Sam sweetie, he's _your_ Sam," she stroked his face gently, her expression twisted with empathy.

"How did you die Dean?" she asked.

"I don't..." he shook his head, "I'm not..." he winced feeling horrible cutting slashing sensations all over his body just before a sharp breathtaking cramp stabbed through him and he felt crushed to the ground. He sucked a gasping breath, "I gotta..." he turned in a circle, "The Sumerland...Ana... No," he shook his head looking around, something in his expression almost desperate.

"Dean?" she whispered noting the change in his stance, his carriage, "Enki," she breathed.

He turned to her, beaming a brilliant and doting smile as he strode to her and cupped her cheek while examining her dress, "You have not yet passed through the seventh gate? Good. I must find the tablets... which way is the gate woman? I must seek the dragon," he barely glanced at her as his gaze swept the changing plain around them.

Gone were the verdant greens, the ocean view, the copious flowerbeds, all replaced with molten orange limned black scales of earth.

"Ahh the gate..." he directed, walking with her beside him to the doors, each made of two panels filled with friezes that told the stories of the beginnings of the heavens and earth; of the birth of the gods, and mankind. _It's been a long time since I've seen these gates, and what a tale they tell. _

Laura froze, disturbed. There were no gallas at this post and yet the doors were opening, _I can't go in there, I can't let those gates close behind me, Dean? Enki? Please don't..._ she stopped and sighed, resigned,_ make this all in vain...he needs the tablets of destiny, of course! _she smacked her palm to her forehead, _To banish a God he needs the tablet of destinies FOR THE GODS...Man am I stupid!_ she shook her head.

As she turned to face him, two pair of rough clawed hands yanked the skirt from her hips, tossing her off balance. She landed on her stomach only to feel their claws sink into her body as they drew her over the threshold and as the gates closed, her eyes fixed on the one thing she could look at forever, the man she loved.

Until those gates closed, and the fires of the underworld erupted on this side of them, barring all from any possibility of escape, she felt no pain, when he was gone from her sight, she wept in agony.

--

**THE END**.

Please R&R.

Thank You.

sifi.


End file.
